Poverty negatively affects structural wiring in children’s brains: study

Growing up in poverty can take a toll on a child’s brain, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, points to an association between both neighborhood and household poverty and damage to the brain’s white matter pathways, which allow communication between brain regions. White matter plays an important role in helping the brain process information.

The findings stem from the largest long-term study of brain development and child health conducted in the US – the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which was initiated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2015.

The University of Washington is a national leader in the study of the developing brain and is one of 21 study sites across the country participating in the ABCD study, which has been following nearly 12,000 children ages 9 to 10 for at least a decade. Is. “The integrity of white matter is very important in brain development,” said first author Zhaolong (Adrian) Li, a neuroimaging research technician in the Department of Psychiatry.

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“For example, vulnerabilities in white matter are associated with visuospatial and mental health challenges in children. If we can understand how socioeconomic status affects white matter early in a child’s life, there is hope That we can, one day, turn these findings into preventive scales.”

The researchers also found that childhood obesity and lower cognitive function may, at least partially, explain the effect of poverty on white matter differences. In general, children who grow up in poverty are at higher risk of obesity and score lower on tests of cognitive function than their peers in higher-income neighborhoods and homes.

The latter may be due, in part, to limited access to rich sensory, social and cognitive stimulation. James S., Ph.D. Tamara Hershey said, “If confirmed, our findings suggest that obesity and cognitive enhancement may be relevant mediators to encourage cognitively stimulating activities to manage healthy weight and support brain health in disadvantaged children.” will provide strong support.” McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology.

The research was conducted at the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center at the university’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.

The white matter, the densely packed nerve fibers deep in the brain, gets its white color from the fatty substance that surrounds the nerve fibers. The fatty coating is responsible for the rapid transmission of information along nerve cell pathways. The organization and connectivity between these pathways supports learning and proper communication across brain regions. Disruption of these communication pathways has been linked to physical challenges as well as poor mental health outcomes.

The scientists used the publicly available ABCD study database, through which they were able to model water movement as an indicator of white matter integrity in brain scans of 8,842 children aged 9 to 11. Just as rocks, pebbles and boulders affect the flow of water in a river, diverse brain cell structures create barriers that hinder the diffusion of water.

The researchers found less directional movement of water molecules in the brains of children living in poverty, indicating structural changes in white matter regions. They also found higher amounts of water in globular spaces in the brain, indicating possible neuroinflammation in children living in poverty.

A child’s environment is complex, involving influences from both the neighborhood and the family. Disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer disproportionately from unemployment, poverty and income inequality. Single-parent households are more common, and residents are typically less educated, earn less income and own fewer assets.

“Our analysis showed that neighborhood poverty is associated with white matter differences and estimated immune cell presence. We found a similar link when looking at household socioeconomic status, after taking into account annual income and parental education.” Got it,” Lee said.

“Wealth and income inequality is growing rapidly in America,” said co-corresponding author Scott Marek, PhD, assistant professor of radiology and psychiatry. “We and others are just beginning to scratch the surface of how inequality may harm the developing brain and affect mental health outcomes. Our findings emphasize a move away from the idea that socioeconomic status is a unitary construct. It’s not just school or parenting that matters for brain health. It’s probably a combination of many neighborhood and family life factors.”

Hershey, who is director of the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center and co-corresponding author, cautioned that the study looked at only one time point. Therefore, it is too early to know whether poverty is the cause of the brain differences seen in the study, he said. However, the ABCD study continues to track enrolled children through brain scans and cognitive testing, with the potential for future long-term brain development studies in disadvantaged children.

“We hope this work will encourage future studies to investigate modifiable health risk factors in larger and longitudinal samples that will one day turn into interventions,” Hershey said.