The influence of socioeconomic status on children's brain structure

Children's cognitive abilities and school achievements are deeply affected by parental socioeconomic status (SES). Numerous studies have reported lower cognitive performance in relation to unfavorable environments, but little is known about the effects of SES on the child's neural structur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-08, Vol.7 (8), p.e42486-e42486
Main Authors: Jednoróg, Katarzyna, Altarelli, Irene, Monzalvo, Karla, Fluss, Joel, Dubois, Jessica, Billard, Catherine, Dehaene-Lambertz, Ghislaine, Ramus, Franck
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Biology
Brain
Brain - anatomy & histology
Brain - physiology
Cerebrum - anatomy & histology
Child
Children
Cognition
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive ability
Cognitive development
Communication
Demography
Education
Environmental conditions
Families & family life
Female
Hippocampus
Humans
Infant
Language
Life sciences
Magnetic resonance imaging
Male
Medical imaging
Memory
Morphometry
Neuroimaging
Organ Specificity
Parenting
Phonetics
Phonology
Preschool education
Reading
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social Class
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomics
Studies
Substantia alba
Substantia grisea
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Children's cognitive abilities and school achievements are deeply affected by parental socioeconomic status (SES). Numerous studies have reported lower cognitive performance in relation to unfavorable environments, but little is known about the effects of SES on the child's neural structures. Here, we systematically explore the association between SES and brain anatomy through MRI in a group of 23 healthy 10-year-old children with a wide range of parental SES. We confirm behaviorally that language is one of the cognitive domains most affected by SES. Furthermore, we observe widespread modifications in children's brain structure. A lower SES is associated with smaller volumes of gray matter in bilateral hippocampi, middle temporal gyri, left fusiform and right inferior occipito-temporal gyri, according to both volume- and surface-based morphometry. Moreover, we identify local gyrification effects in anterior frontal regions, supportive of a potential developmental lag in lower SES children. In contrast, we found no significant association between SES and white matter architecture. These findings point to the potential neural mediators of the link between unfavourable environmental conditions and cognitive skills.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0042486