Childhood poverty: specific associations with neurocognitive development.
Growing up in poverty is associated with reduced cognitive achievement as measured by standardized intelligence tests, but little is known about the underlying neurocognitive systems responsible for this effect. We administered a battery of tasks designed to tax-specific neurocognitive systems to healthy low and middle SES children screened for medical history and matched for age, gender and ethnicity. Higher SES was associated with better performance on the tasks, as expected, but the SES disparity was significantly nonuniform across neurocognitive systems. Pronounced differences were found in Left perisylvian/Language and Medial temporal/Memory systems, along with significant differences in Lateral/Prefrontal/Working memory and Anterior cingulate/Cognitive control and smaller, nonsignificant differences in Occipitotemporal/Pattern vision and Parietal/Spatial cognition.
Farah
Martha J
MJ
Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104, USA. mfarah@psych.upenn.edu
Shera
David M
DM
Savage
Jessica H
JH
Betancourt
Laura
L
Giannetta
Joan M
JM
Brodsky
Nancy L
NL
Malmud
Elsa K
EK
Hurt
Hallam
H
D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011203:Poverty; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology