Economic inequality is a problem that runs rampant in many different countries. Researchers have known that children from higher SES perform better on a various number of cognitive measures, such as IQ scores, reading and language tests, and tests of executive function - the ability to focus attention on a task. Some studies have even discovered that key brain areas in children of higher SES tend be larger in volume, more developed, or both.
However, there are problems distinguishing SES and racial background, which, in the US, are difficult to separate because nonwhite groups tend to have higher poverty levels.
In an article published by Nature Neuroscience, the relationships between socioeconomic factors and brain morphometry was investigated. The brains of 1099 children and young adults were scanned using MRI. The MRI scans allowed the researchers to measure the surface area of the subjects' cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain where most advanced cognitive processing takes place.
During Dr. Daniel Hackman's talk on Socioeconomic status and the Brain, he said that the currently available research indicates that the environments and experiences of childhood in different socioeconomic statuses are at least in part responsible for different neurocognitive outcomes for these children.
The results showed that cortical surface area was indeed correlated with different measures of socioeconomic status. Parental education showed a linear correlation with overall cortical surface area, especially for regions of the brain involve in language, reading, and executive functions.
These results show that the disparity between social classes in regards to economic status have problematic consequences for the future generations and this problem needs to be solved so children won't have a strike against them before they can do anything.
Sources
(i) Noble, Houston, Brito, Bartsch, Kan, Kuperman, Akshoomoff, Amaral, Bloss, Libiger, Schork, Murray, Casey, Chang, Ernst, Frazier, Gruen, Kennedy, Van Zijl, Mostofsky, Kaufmann, Kenet, Dale, Jernigan, Sowell (2014). "Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents." Nature Neuroscience, 18, 773-778.
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