1-078 - The effect of socio-economic inequality on the brain depends on age, cognitive and environmental factors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Although there is an extensive literature on the effect of deprivation and threat on brain development in non-human primates, recently has there been a focus on the effect of the adverse childhood experiences on the development of the brain in humans. For example, literature now shows that socio-economic status (SES) and poverty affects brain structure and function in humans, but our understanding of this relation is becoming increasingly sophisticated. This symposium brings together four distinct groups of scholars to discuss the state-of-the-art of how inequality affects neural development. Dr. Noble shows that age-related regionally specific structural changes are linear in higher SES, but curvilinear in lower SES suggesting that the environment affects sensitive periods in the brain. Dr. Demir-Lira will discuss how a positive attitude towards math in lower SES children may up-regulate prefrontal function, which in turn may play a compensatory role in arithmetic. Dr. Sheridan will review evidence that trauma affects stress reactivity, whereas poverty is related to cognitive function. Dr. Stevens will discuss evidence for long-term effects of a two-generation intervention with lower SES families on electrophysiological responses in attention networks and their efforts at adapting this intervention to Latino families. In summary, these studies show that the effect of socio-economic inequality on the brain is complicated, and depends on age, cognitive and environmental factors. We will discuss how this research is important for informing public policy on inequality.

Sub Unit

• Biology and Neuroscience

Chair

• James Booth, The University of Texas at Austin

Individual Presentations

• Socioeconomic inequality modifies links among cortical thickness, age and cognition - Presenting Author: Kimberly Noble, Columbia University; Luciane R. Piccolo, Teachers College, Columbia University; Emily C. Merz, Columbia University Medical Center; Natalie Hiromi Brito, Columbia University Medical Center; Xiaofu He, Columbia University Medical Center

• Relations between attitudes towards math and neural basis of arithmetic processing vary with parental socioeconomic status - Presenting Author: Ozlem Ece Demir-Lira, University of Chicago; Macarena Suárez Pellicioni, The University of Texas at Austin; James Booth, The University of Texas at Austin

• How does exposure to poverty get under the skin to affect mental health? - Presenting Author: Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Katie McLaughlin, University of Washington

• Expansion and longitudinal assessment of a two-generation intervention for lower SES children: Challenges and implications - Presenting Author: Courtney Stevens, Willamette University; Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon; Theodore Bell, University of Oregon; Jessica Fanning, University of Oregon; Scott Klein, University of Oregon; Elif Isbell, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Zayra Longoria, University of Oregon; Amanda Hampton Wray, Michigan State University; Helen Neville, University of Oregon