Parental Education and Left Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortical Activity during N-Back Task: An fMRI Study of American Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction. The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) is a cortical structure that has implications in cognition, memory, reward anticipation, outcome evaluation, decision making, and learning. As such, OFC activity correlates with these cognitive brain abilities. Despite research suggesting race and socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental education may be associated with OFC activity, limited knowledge exists on multiplicative effects of race and parental education on OFC activity and associated cognitive ability. Purpose. Using functional brain imaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we tested the multiplicative effects of race and parental education on left lateral OFC activity during an N-Back task. In our study, we used a sociological rather than biological theory that conceptualizes race and SES as proxies of access to the opportunity structure and exposure to social adversities rather than innate and non-modifiable brain differences. We explored racial variation in the effect of parental educational attainment, a primary indicator of SES, on left lateral OFC activity during an N-Back task between Black and White 9–10 years old adolescents. Methods. The ABCD study is a national, landmark, multi-center brain imaging investigation of American adolescents. The total sample was 4290 9–10 years old Black or White adolescents. The independent variables were SES indicators, namely family income, parental education, and neighborhood income. The primary outcome was the average beta weight for N-Back (2 back versus 0 back contrast) in ASEG ROI left OFC activity, measured by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during an N-Back task. Ethnicity, age, sex, subjective SES, and family structure were the study covariates. For data analysis, we used linear regression models. Results. In White but not Black adolescents, parental education was associated with higher left lateral OFC activity during the N-Back task. In the pooled sample, we found a significant interaction between race and parental education on the outcome, suggesting that high parental education is associated with a larger increase in left OFC activity of White than Black adolescents. Conclusions. For American adolescents, race and SES jointly influence left lateral OFC activity correlated with cognition, memory, decision making, and learning. Given the central role of left lateral OFC activity in learning and memory, our finding calls for additional research on contextual factors that reduce the gain of SES for Black adolescents. Cognitive inequalities are not merely due to the additive effects of race and SES but also its multiplicative effects.

Parental Education and Children’s Sleep Problems: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

“…44 Our finding reflects MDRs of parental education on children's sleep problems in Black and Latino families. This is in line with what is already established on the MDRs of many economic resources such as parental education on impulsivity, 15 reward responsiveness, 40 inhibitory control, 45 attention, 46 and ADHD 26 for non-Latino Black children compared to non-Latino White children. Similar MDRs are also reported for the effects of almost all SES indicators on behavioral risks such as substance use 17 , unhealthy diet, 27 lack of exercise, 28 anxiety, 25 depression, 19 and suicide.…”

Racism-Related Diminished Returns of Socioeconomic Status on Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development

“…In the ABCD data, we have found weaker SES effects on the function and size of the thalamus (Assari & Curry, 2021), hippocampus , amygdala (Assari, Boyce, et al, 2020b), and cortical surface (Assari, 2020g;Assari, Boyce, Bazargan, et al, 2021;Assari, Boyce, Saqib, et al, 2021) for Black children compared to their White counterparts. Studies have also suggested that exposure to stress caused by a variety of causes such as life events , financial instability (Assari, 2020k), and race/ethnicity explain the observed MDRs for Black adolescents.…”

“…At a cognitive level, there are weaker SES effects for emotion regulation, inhibitory control, reward processing, and executive function for Blacks compared to Whites (Assari, 2020cAssari, Boyce, Akhlaghipour, Bazargan, & Caldwell, 2020;Assari, Boyce, & Bazargan, 2020a. Cross-sectional analyses of the ABCD study data shows weaker effects of SES on the function/size of the thalamus (Assari & Curry, 2021), hippocampus , amygdala (Assari, Boyce, et al, 2020b), and cerebral cortex (Assari, 2020g;Assari, Boyce, Bazargan, et al, 2021;Assari, Boyce, Saqib, Bazargan, & Caldwell, 2021) for Black children compared to White children.…”

Childhood trauma and cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia: mediation by orbitofrontal cortex H-shaped sulci volume

“… 48 Several studies have shown that the OFC is associated with race, low socioeconomic status, stress and other factors associated with childhood trauma. 49 …”