Processes linking socioeconomic disadvantage and neural underpinnings of executive function in adolescence

• In Event: 3-013 - Advances in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience of Executive Function

Integrative Statement

The developmental period of adolescence is marked by the maturation of neural regions underlying executive functions (EF). Specifically, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) undergoes slow, protracted development which facilitates abilities such as decision making, attention, working memory, and inhibitory control (Powers & Casey, 2015). Prior work has demonstrated that the environmental contexts of children and adolescents can impact development of these abilities. For example, factors such as family socioeconomic status (SES) have been linked to child and adolescent cognitive performance (Hackman et al., 2015). More recently, this area of research has expanded to investigate how context can impact neural underpinnings of cognitive development, using methodologies such as fMRI and EEG. Specifically, lower SES has been linked to individual differences in brain structure and function (Farah, 2017). Despite these important advances, there remains a need for research elucidating the processes whereby SES may impact neurodevelopment related to EF. Caregivers’ income and education, in and of itself, may not directly impact their offspring’s adjustment; rather, there may be important proximal factors related to SES, which in turn can contribute to child and adolescent adjustment. Thus, our prospective longitudinal study sought to test four different factors known to be associated with SES: parents’ self-regulation, household chaos, perceived stress, and parent-child relationship quality. We hypothesized that these factors would mediate the association between SES and patterns of activation in the PFC in adolescence.
In a sample of 167 adolescents (Mage = 14.07 years at Time 1) and their primary caregivers, we tested a longitudinal structural equation model to examine the hypothesized indirect effect of SES at Time 1 on neural activation during an inhibitory control task at Time 4 (three years later). SES at Time 1 was operationalized as a composite of family income-to-need ratio and parents’ years of education. At Time 2, parents completed an inhibitory control task and adolescents provided self-report of household chaos, perceived stress, and parent-child relationship quality. At Time 4, adolescents completed the same inhibitory control task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the parallel mediation model, each mediator was tested simultaneously (Figure 1). This initial model had poor fit (χ2 =53.93, df = 6, p = .00, CFI = .30, RMSEA = 0.22), so non-significant paths were trimmed to improve model fit and parsimony. The final model including parent inhibitory control as a mediator was fully saturated (i.e., χ2 = 0, df = 0). Results indicated that lower SES at Time 1 predicted worse parent inhibitory control at Time 2, which in turn was associated with higher activation (indicative of worse inhibitory control) in the middle frontal gyrus for adolescents at Time 4 (Figure 1). Furthermore, the indirect effect was significant (b = -0.02, SE = 0.01, β = -.05, 95% CI [-0.11, -0.003]), suggesting that parents’ inhibitory control may explain the link between SES and neural underpinnings of EF. We will discuss the implications of these findings for healthy neurodevelopment in adolescence and how modification of proximal risk-factors related to SES may improve adolescent outcomes.

Authors

• Alexis Brieant, Virginia Tech
  Presenting Author

• Brooks King-Casas, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author