Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents

Abstract

Socioeconomic disparities are associated with differences in cognitive development. The extent to which this translates to disparities in brain structure is unclear. Here, we investigated relationships between socioeconomic factors and brain morphometry, independently of genetic ancestry, among a cohort of 1099 typically developing individuals between 3 and 20 years. Income was logarithmically associated with brain surface area. Specifically, among children from lower income families, small differences in income were associated with relatively large differences in surface area, whereas, among children from higher income families, similar income increments were associated with smaller differences in surface area. These relationships were most prominent in regions supporting language, reading, executive functions and spatial skills; surface area mediated socioeconomic differences in certain neurocognitive abilities. These data indicate that income relates most strongly to brain structure among the most disadvantaged children. Potential implications are discussed.

Neurodevelopmental origins of lifespan changes in brain and cognition

“…(26,27), and the Apgar score (29). Socioeconomic status (SES) variables, including parental education and income, as well as single parenthood (30,31), are factors that may relate to neurocognitive development. For descriptives on these variables in subsample 1, see Supporting Information and Table S1.…”

“…We targeted early candidate factors that could potentially impact cortical area and general cognitive function, and hypothesized that such influences on brain and cognition in development would have continuous impacts. The targeted factors included pre-and neonatal biomedical health variables (26,27), specifically length of gestation (28), birth weight (26,27), and Apgar score obtained 5 min after birth (a measure of newborn vital signs) (29), as well as socioeconomic variables (30) [i.e., parental education, income, and single parenthood (31)]. An independent sample of twins was used to estimate the heritability of the surface area of the identified cortical regions, and how much of the phenotypic correlations of cortical area and GCA that could be accounted for by genetic factors.…”

The neuroscience of poverty

“…Examining MRI scans of more than 1,000 subjects between the ages of 3 and 20 years from a national database, Noble et al (10) detected smaller hippocampal volume in kids from families with less education (an oftused proxy for SES). More significantly, they found differences in the surface area of the cerebral cortex.…”

Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation: The Evolving Global Child Health Landscape

“…53 Given the close nexus between poverty and undernutrition, it is not surprising that significant correlations between poverty and brain development have been demonstrated. 54,55 Other research looking at factors associated with neurodevelopment and poverty has focused on the toxic effects of violence, abuse, and exposure to conflict. Data from the recent Lancet series on early child development 56 also suggest that by using conjoint estimates of poverty and stunting, some 200 million children worldwide are at risk for suboptimal development with huge economic costs over their lifetimes and potentially across generations.…”