Socioeconomic Status and Reading Disability: Neuroanatomy and Plasticity in Response to Intervention

Abstract

SES AND NEUROANATOMY IN READING DISABILITY 2Although reading disability (RD) and socioeconomic status (SES) are independently associated with variation in reading ability and brain structure/function, the joint influence of SES and RD on neuroanatomy and/or response to intervention is unknown. Sixty-five children with RD (ages 6 to 9) with diverse SES were assigned to an intensive, 6-week summer reading intervention (n = 40) or to a waiting-list control group (n = 25). Before and after, all children completed standardized reading assessments and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure cortical thickness. At baseline, higher SES correlated with greater vocabulary and greater cortical thickness in bilateral perisylvian and supramarginal regions-especially in left pars opercularis.Within the intervention group, lower SES was associated with both greater reading improvement and greater cortical thickening across broad, bilateral occipitotemporal and temporoparietal regions following the intervention. Additionally, treatment responders (n = 20), compared to treatment non-responders (n = 19), exhibited significantly greater cortical thickening within similar regions. The waiting control and non-responder groups exhibited developmentallytypical, non-significant cortical thinning during this time period. These findings indicate that effective summer reading intervention is coupled with cortical growth, and is especially beneficial for children with RD who come from lower-SES home environments. (Word count: 197)

The relationship between socioeconomic status and white matter microstructure in pre‐reading children: A longitudinal investigation

“…Consistent with previous studies that demonstrated modulatory influences of SES on the brain–reading relationship (Brito, Piccolo, & Noble, ; Gullick et al, ; Noble et al, ; Romeo et al, ), ILF FA in kindergarten was associated with better second‐grade reading outcomes in lower‐SES but not higher‐SES children. The longitudinal nature of the current findings is a notable difference from other studies that only examined the SES × brain association with reading concurrently.…”

“…SES in childhood has profound and widespread implications for brain development (Hackman, Farah, & Meaney, ), with language and reading‐related brain structures being particularly affected (Noble & McCandliss, ; Noble, Tottenham, & Casey, ; Romeo et al, ; Rowe & Goldin‐Meadow, ). SES is thought to affect brain development, and subsequent behavioral outcomes, through a range of mediating factors such as maternal stress and cognitive stimulation (Hackman et al, ).…”

Socioeconomic Inequality and the Developing Brain: Spotlight on Language and Executive Function

“…Family SES has been associated repeatedly with differences in children's brain structure, particularly in regions responsible for language and EF. Socioeconomic disadvantage has been associated with reduced cortical gray matter, as measured in terms of volume (Hair, Hanson, Wolfe, & Pollak, ; Jednoróg et al., ), thickness (Lawson, Duda, Avants, Wu, & Farah, ; Mackey et al., ; Romeo et al., ), and surface area (Noble et al., ). For example, in a study of 3‐ to 20‐year‐olds, higher family income and parental education were associated significantly with greater cortical surface area, independent of age, sex, and genetic ancestry (Noble et al., ).…”

“…The strongest effects were seen in the left perisylvian cortical regions underlying language processing, as well as in the regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) underlying EF. These neuroanatomical differences partially explained socioeconomic disparities in vocabulary (Romeo et al., ), EF (Noble et al., ), and standardized tests of academic achievement (Hair et al., ; Mackey et al., ).…”

“…The strongest effects were seen in the left perisylvian cortical regions underlying language processing, as well as in the regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) underlying EF. These neuroanatomical differences partially explained socioeconomic disparities in vocabulary (Romeo et al, 2017), EF (Noble et al, 2015), and standardized tests of academic achievement (Hair et al, 2015;Mackey et al, 2015). Studies examining these associations have also used diffusion tensor imaging, a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that measures the diffusion of water molecules in the brain.…”