Scientific article
OA Policy
English

The influence of socioeconomic status on children's brain structure

Published inPloS one, vol. 7, no. 8, e42486
Publication date2012
Abstract

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.

Keywords
  • Brain/anatomy & histology/physiology
  • Cerebrum/anatomy & histology
  • Child
  • Cognition/physiology
  • Communication
  • Demography
  • Education
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Organ Specificity
  • Social Class
Citation (ISO format)
JEDNORÓG, Katarzyna et al. The influence of socioeconomic status on children’s brain structure. In: PloS one, 2012, vol. 7, n° 8, p. e42486. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042486
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1932-6203
644views
359downloads

Technical informations

Creation14/10/2013 14:06:00
First validation14/10/2013 14:06:00
Update time14/03/2023 20:40:18
Status update14/03/2023 20:40:18
Last indexation30/10/2024 15:11:01
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack