Effects of poverty on brain development

.....backed by other research works, is chiefly grounded in Luby and coworkers' 2013 research project titled "The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development: The Mediating Effect of Caregiving and Stressful Life Events". It was obtained from EBSCOhost's database via a search activity, utilizing the expression "poverty and the brain".

Poverty during the early childhood stage of life has an adverse effect on the development of the individual's brain, as indicated by school-goers' MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans (Lipina & Colombo, 2009; Lende, 2012). That environmental stimuli serve to enhance the production of hippocampal cells within lab animals in comparison to animals subject to relatively rare stimuli is an established fact ("Poverty, neglect in childhood...", 2013). This research work aimed at ascertaining whether or not the early childhood income-needs ratio influences school age kids' brain development and at examining the mediating factors of the abovementioned influence.

For analyzing the impacts destitution had on brain development in the childhood phase and for informing the mediators of the aforementioned impacts, the researchers scrutinized poverty's links with the volume of total cortical gray and white matter, in addition to that of the amygdala and hippocampus among kids aged between six and twelve years, longitudinally followed beginning from their preschool days ("Poverty linked to reduced brain...", 2014). Drawing on animal subjects' neurobiological data and human beings' behavioral information, the authors put forward their theory of an extant impact of penury on the above brain volume results. Further, they postulated that important variables linked to poverty and established as having adverse influences on kids' development outcomes (e.g., traumatic life events, caregiver support, and caregiver education) were mediating factors in the relationship between brain volume and poverty.

As regards the research methodology adopted, researchers gathered information from a potential longitudinal research of preschoolers' emotional growth (these kids later went on to take part in neuroimaging tests). The analysis aimed at determining how brain development was impacted by destitution. Research subjects were evaluated yearly for a period of 3 to 6 years before an MRI scan of their brain was conducted for assessing their developmental aspects (behavioral, psychosocial, and so forth). The authors performed their analyses in one of Washington University medical school's academic research units (Luby et al., 2013).

Research findings revealed a relationship between poverty and decreased cortical gray, white matter, amygdala and hippocampus volume. But parental/caregiver apathy or support proved to be a mediating factors in poverty's impact on right and left hippocampus volume. Traumatic incidents proved to be a mediator in poverty's impacts on subjects' left hippocampus. As mentioned previously, authors postulated a mediating effect of parenting and traumatic events on the brain volume-poverty linkage. They firstly verified a link between poverty (predictor) and parenting, life events and caregiver education (probable mediators) and the mediating factors' link with brain volume (the result). Regression analyses corroborated a significant link between poverty and caregiver education (probable mediator). However, no relationship was found between brain volume and caregiver education. The above findings illustrated a link between poverty experienced in the early childhood phase and decreased cortical gray and white matter, and amygdala and hippocampus volumes as gauged in the late childhood and early teenage stages.

The aforementioned findings led to the conclusion that traumatic life events played a mediating role in poverty's impact on the left hippocampus volume. The researchers assert that this is in line with data on animal subjects related to the adverse impacts of premature stress on adrenal-hypothalamic-pituitary function. Although better living conditions may contribute significantly to improving such problems, the authors hold that this isn't a realistic goal. They believe comprehending the above mechanisms is crucial to designing better-targeted interventions that offer a workable alternative to altering actual psychosocial standing, which is an appreciably more difficult objective that swiftly-growing, susceptible kids cannot wait for (Luby et al. 2013, p.8).

References

(2013). Poverty, neglect in childhood affect brain size. Business Mirror (Makati City, Philippines).

(2014). Poverty linked to reduced brain development. The Brown University Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update. p. 3.

Lende, D. H. (2012). POVERTY POISONS THE BRAIN. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 36(1), 183-201. doi:10.1111/j.2153-9588.2012.01099.x

Lipina, S. J., & Colombo, J. A. (2009). Poverty and Brain Development During Childhood: An Approach from Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Luby, J., Belden, A., Botteron, K., Marrus, N., Harms, M. P., Babb, C., . . . Barch, D. (2013). The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development: The Mediating Effect of Caregiving and Stressful Life Events. JAMA Pediatrics, 167(12), 1135 -- 1142. doi.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.3139