Childhood adversity is associated with increased risk for psychopathology. Neurodevelopmental pathways underlying this risk remain poorly understood. A recent conceptual model posits that childhood adversity can be deconstructed into at least two underlying dimensions, deprivation and threat, that are associated with distinct neurocognitive consequences. This model argues that deprivation (i.e., a lack of cognitive stimulation and learning opportunities) is associated with poor executive function (EF), whereas threat is not. We examine this hypothesis in two studies measuring EF at multiple levels: performance on EF tasks, neural recruitment during EF, and problems with EF in daily life. In Study 1, deprivation (low parental education and child neglect) was associated with greater parent-reported problems with EF in adolescents (N = 169; 13–17 years) after adjustment for levels of threat (community violence and abuse), which were unrelated to EF. In Study 2, low parental education was associated with poor working memory (WM) performance and inefficient neural recruitment in the parietal and prefrontal cortex during high WM load among adolescents (N = 51, 13–20 years) after adjusting for abuse, which was unrelated to WM task performance and neural recruitment during WM. These findings constitute strong preliminary evidence for a novel model of the neurodevelopmental consequences of childhood adversity.

In the United States, the difference in academic achievement between higher- and lower-income students (i.e., the income achievement gap) is substantial and growing. Here, we investigated neuroanatomical correlates of this gap in adolescents (n = 58) in whom academic achievement was measured by statewide standardized testing. Cortical gray matter volume was significantly greater in students from higher-income backgrounds (n = 35) compared to students from lower-income backgrounds (n = 23), but cortical white matter volume and total cortical surface area did not differ between groups. Cortical thickness in all lobes of the brain was greater in students from higher-income than lower-income backgrounds. Thicker cortex, particularly in temporal and occipital lobes, was associated with better test performance. These results represent the first evidence that cortical thickness differs across broad swaths of the brain between higher- and lower-income students, and that cortical thickness is related to academic achievement test scores.

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