Relations among Socioeconomic Status, Functional Brain Activity, and Neurocognitive Outcomes: Unified Framework Approaches

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research suggests that socioeconomic disparities are often associated with performance on measures of in linguistic and cognitive development, and that these differences are often accompanied by alterations in functional brain activity. Much research examining these relations to date have relied on a piecemeal approach to investigating these questions (e.g., only examining links between SES and brain or between SES and behavior) instead of testing SES, brain, and behavior in a unified framework. Additionally, although socioeconomic disparities in outcomes are observable, many questions remain surrounding when these disparities emerge, and the extent to which we observe differences in neural activity across domains (e.g., language vs executive function). This symposium will use a unified framework examine the relations among SES, the brain, and neurocognitive development from infancy through middle childhood. First, we will present evidence that SES is not associated with brain activity at 1-month of age, but that 1-month EEG does predict language skill at 6 months of age. Second, we will present evidence in preschoolers that SES does not predict differences in the brain or executive function, but that brain activity does predict executive skill. Finally, we will present evidence that socioeconomic circumstance is linked to different neurocognitive profiles for the identification of reading disorders in middle childhood. Results will be discussed by the expert discussant and early career chair and placed within the broader literature as well as recommendations for future research will be made.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Kimberly G Noble, Teachers College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Longitudinal associations among socioeconomic circumstance, brain activity, and language skill across the first six months of life. - Presenting Author: Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, Teachers College, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Kimberly G Noble, Teachers College, Columbia University

• EEG Gamma Activity Varies by Gender and Executive Function but Not by Socioeconomic Status in U.S. Preschoolers - Presenting Author: Diana Carolina Lopera-Pérez, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Ashley St. John, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda R Tarullo, Boston University

• Socioeconomic dissociations in the cognitive and neural correlates of reading disability - Presenting Author: Rachel R. Romeo, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Joanna A. Christodoulou, MGH Institute of Health Professions; Non-Presenting Author: Halie A. Olson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Non-Presenting Author: John D.E. Gabrieli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology