Do children in poverty have lower grey matter volumes?
Question asked:
âChildren living in poverty have lower grey matter volumes in the frontal and temporal cortex and the hippocampus compared to children not living in poverty.â
Summary
Research consistently shows that children living in poverty exhibit reduced gray matter volume in the frontal and temporal cortices as well as the hippocampus compared with children from higherâincome families. This finding is reported across several peerâreviewed studies and metaâanalyses.
Sources 59 searched
- The ecology of poverty and childrenâs brain development: A systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis of brain imaging studies - ScienceDirect
This review provides a summary of neuroimaging studies investigating the impact of poverty on childrenâs gray matter volume and task-based brain activation. Our synthesis suggests that poverty is generally associated with childrenâs gray matter volume and activation changes in the frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions.
- The interplay between poverty and the human brain connectome across the lifespan: A systematic review - ScienceDirect
While these findings offer valuable ... properties of grey matter, these differences may not fully capture the complex relationship between poverty and its impact on behavioral and cognitive outcomes (Genon et al., 2017...
- Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic Achievement - PMC
Low SES was associated with atypical gray matter development. Children from families with limited financial resources displayed systematic structural differences in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and hippocampus. The regional gray matter volumes of children below 1.5 times the FPL were, on ...
- Childhood poverty is associated with altered hippocampal function and visuospatial memory in adulthood - PMC
Previous studies demonstrate that hippocampus might be especially vulnerable to early poverty, as adverse life events occurring in childhood (âŒage 8â9) are associated with altered hippocampal development, potentially influencing mental health symptoms in adulthood (Schalinski et al., 2016).
- State of the Art Review: Poverty and the Developing Brain - PMC
These studies have linked negative parenting experiences with smaller gray- and white-matter volume in childhood and smaller hippocampal volume in adulthood.98 Importantly, however, individuals vary in their susceptibility to parenting; this susceptibility may be a function of factors such ...
- The ecology of poverty and children's brain development: A systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis of brain imaging studies - PubMed
Among 14,188 participants and 14,057 participants, poverty was associated with smaller gray matter volumes in the amygdala and hippocampus, respectively. Moderator testing revealed that family poverty had a stronger association than neighborhood ...
- Poverty from fetal life onward and child brain morphology | Scientific Reports
In contrast, a longitudinal study found an association between lower income-to-need ratio and smaller cortical gray and white matter, hippocampus, and amygdala volumes10, similar to our results in the partially-adjusted models.
- Childhood Poverty is Associated with Altered Hippocampal ...
vulnerable to early poverty, as adverse life events occurring in childhood (~age 8â9) are · associated with altered hippocampal development, potentially influencing mental health · symptoms in adulthood (Schalinski et al. 2016). Some (Hanson et al. 2011; Hanson et al. 2014; Luby et al. 2012; Luby et al. 2013),, but not all studies (Hanson et al. 2013), link · specific poverty-associated factors (e.g. maternal support, environmental stress) to altered · hippocampus, amygdala, and cortical brain volume.
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