The Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Children’s Brain Structure

Abstract

Children’s cognitive abilities and school achievements are deeply affected by parental socioeconomic status (SES). Numerous studies have reported lower cognitive performance in relation to unfavorable environments, but little is known about the effects of SES on the child’s neural structures. Here, we systematically explore the association between SES and brain anatomy through MRI in a group of 23 healthy 10-year-old children with a wide range of parental SES. We confirm behaviorally that language is one of the cognitive domains most affected by SES. Furthermore, we observe widespread modifications in children’s brain structure. A lower SES is associated with smaller volumes of gray matter in bilateral hippocampi, middle temporal gyri, left fusiform and right inferior occipito-temporal gyri, according to both volume- and surface-based morphometry. Moreover, we identify local gyrification effects in anterior frontal regions, supportive of a potential developmental lag in lower SES children. In contrast, we found no significant association between SES and white matter architecture. These findings point to the potential neural mediators of the link between unfavourable environmental conditions and cognitive skills.

How Socioeconomic Disadvantages Get Under the Skin and into the Brain to Influence Health Development Across the Lifespan

“…In the hippocampus, SED is associated with alterations in its structure across developmental stages (Hanson et al 2011;Noble et al 2015). Importantly, these effects have been documented not only in the USA but internationally as well (Jednorog et al 2012). In a longitudinal study, family income was inversely associated with bilateral hippocampus gray matter volumes in children at age 9.…”

“…This may be further associated with compromised cognitive functions. In middle childhood, SED was linked to reduced gyrification in the medial prefrontal cortex, indicating delayed maturation (Jednorog et al 2012).…”

The Role and Sources of Individual Differences in Critical-Analytic Thinking: a Capsule Overview

“…Low SES has been linked to worse performance on measures of componential cognitive skills, including EF (Crook and Evans 2014;Mezzacappa 2004) and language (Noble et al 2005(Noble et al , 2007. Brain structure differences have also been observed between low and middle SES children and adults, with individuals from lower SES backgrounds demonstrating less cortical gray matter and smaller hippocampi (Jednoróg et al 2012;Lawson et al 2013;Luby et al 2012;Noble et al 2012). There is also evidence that the language network is less leftlateralized in lower SES children (Raizada et al 2008).…”

Could an Interactive-Balanced Environment for Reading Acquisition Overcome the Triad Risk Factors: Low Socioeconomic Status, Low Literacy Skills and Language Properties?

“…Aram, Korat, & Hassunah-Arafat (2013); Cabell, Justice, Konold, & McGinty, 2011;Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000;Mol, & Bus, 2011). Socio-economic status has been found to impact children's cognitive development, especially language functions (Hackman, Farah, & Meaney, 2010;Jednoróg, Altarelli, Monzalvo, Fluss, Dubois et al, 2012). Many studies have pointed out the relationship between early literacy skills and academic success, indicating a significantly lower academic performance when comparing groups from low SES to their counterparts from more advantageous socio-economic backgrounds (e.g.…”