Surprisingly, socioeconomic status matters when it comes to the brain.
A new study has found that children raised in poor households have significant differences in the physical structures of their brains compared to wealthier children, according to NBC News.
“Specifically, among children from the lowest-income families, small differences in income were associated with relatively large differences in surface area in a number of regions of the brain associated with skills important for academic success,” stated Dr. Kimberly Noble, an assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development Lab at Columbia University Medical Center, who helped lead the study.
For the recent study, which was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, brain scans of 1,009 children and teenagers in nine major cities were reportedly analyzed. The families were reportedly divided into groups based on income and education, according to the LA Times.
Although it has been known that socioeconomic status affects both intelligence and school intelligence, it’s not clear yet as to why.
“We’ve known for a long time that cognitive development, school performance and production in adult life can be impacted by socioeconomic status, but now we’re actually seeing it in the brain,” stated Elizabeth Sowell, a development neuroscientist at the Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who was also involved in the study.
The surface of the brain is important as it’s reportedly where the brain cells are linked with the intelligence area. The brains of less intelligent animals and people are reportedly smoothers.
Researchers reportedly found that although the surface of the brain of children who grew up in poverty weren’t much smoother than those who were raised in higher income families, the difference still explained why these kids do less well in school, stated Noble.
“Money can buy better education, homes in areas further away from freeways; Its can buy guitar lessons. It can buy after-school programs; it can buy better healthcare, better nutrition,” stated Sowell.
She continued, “It’s all of those things that many can buy that lead to more enriched experiences for children in wealthier families.”