Poster #178 - The impact of socioeconomic context on neural and behavioral measures of response inhibition among youth

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Socioeconomic disadvantage during childhood is associated with a myriad of negative adult outcomes including lower earnings, poorer mental and physical health, and higher rates of criminal behavior (Duncan et al., 2010; Cohen et al., 2008). One way in which disadvantage may impact individual differences in children’s outcomes is via the development of self-control (i.e., the broad capacity to alter and regulate behavior, thoughts, and emotions; Baumeister et al., 1994). Children from disadvantaged contexts show worse performance on an array of self-control tasks thought to be dependent on prefrontal cortex function (Hackman et al., 2015). Thus, it is possible that socioeconomic context impacts self-control by “getting under the skin” and impacting brain development.
One critical component of self-control is response inhibition, a stable individual trait that indexes the ability to suppress an unwanted or inappropriate response (Casey et al., 2011). In adults, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is critical for response inhibition (Aron et al., 2003), and is consistently activated by fMRI response inhibition tasks, including Go/No-Go tasks (Criaud & Boulinguez, 2013; Simmonds et al., 2008. Thus, IFG activity is likely one mechanism underlying individual differences in response inhibition. Response inhibition shows a protracted developmental trajectory with adolescence representing a critical juncture for the development of neural architecture associated with self-control (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006; Davidson et al., 2006). Consequently, inhibition-related brain regions, such as the IFG, may be particularly susceptible to environmental influence during this period.
The goal of the current study was to examine pathways from three different indicators of socioeconomic context – family income, maternal education, and neighborhood poverty – to neural and behavioral measures of response inhibition in a representative cohort of youth with substantial over-sampling of families living in impoverished neighborhoods. We utilized data from the Michigan Twins Neurogenetics Study (MTwiNS), which included 216 twins (age 7-18). We found that a child-friendly Go/No-Go task activated the bilateral IFG. Children with lower right IFG activation had worse task performance. Neighborhood poverty (measured by census data) was related to less IFG activation during inhibition while controlling for family income and maternal education (Figure 1). Though all three indicators of socioeconomic context were related to behavioral performance during Go/No-Go, only neighborhood impoverishment was related to IFG activation. A mediation model accounting for twin nesting revealed an indirect path from greater neighborhood poverty to worse response inhibition performance via less bilateral IFG activation (Figure 2). These results provide the first direct evidence that SES-related contexts may undermine self-control via their effect on the brain and that the neighborhood context, rather than familial contexts, may be most important for this relationship.

Authors

• Rachel C Tomlinson, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• S. Alexandra Burt, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Waller, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Luke W. Hyde, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author