3-065 - New frontiers in the neuroscience of inequality

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

A growing body of work has begun to document that the brain development of disadvantaged children differs from that of children reared in better-off families. We are now at an exciting juncture when the basic neuroscience of child poverty can serve to inform the design and evaluation of intervention strategies aimed at improving children’s cognitive and emotional development. In this session, we will carefully consider how neuroscience can be harnessed to address socioeconomic inequality. Panelists will be asked to discuss what neuroscience can tell us about the timing and mechanism underlying socioeconomic differences in neural and behavioral outcomes. We will consider what role neuroscience can play in suggesting interventions and providing biomarkers for assessing their efficacy. Panelists will discuss where the field should go next in order to be most relevant for public policy. And finally, we will discuss public perception and approaches to popular media requests to discuss sensitive issues surrounding inequality and brain development. Panelists will include neuroscientists who have contributed to the nascent field of socioeconomic disparities in brain development, an economist who has conducted foundational work on poverty and child development, and an expert in poverty policy and reform. This roundtable will be moderated by Kimberly Noble.

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Moderator

• Kimberly Noble, Columbia University

Panelists

• Greg J. Duncan, University of California - Irvine

• Martha J. Farah, University of Pennsylvania

• Silvia Bunge, University of California Berkeley

• Michael Laracy, Annie E. Casey Foundation