Study: Poverty dramatically affects children's brains

[steaner]

December 8, 2008

Boston (dbTechno) - A new study has found that wealth can have a major impact on the development of a child’s brain.
U.S. researchers from the University of California, Berkeley carried out the study on 26 children between the ages of 9 and 10.
The idea was to look and compare their brain development to their level of wealth.
They focused on the prefrontal cortex area of the brain, which deals with problem solving, creativity, etc.
They were divided up so that 50% of the kids were a part of low-income families, while the other 50% were in wealthy families.
They were then given a test to check on their brain development and compare the two.
What they found was that those who grew up in the wealthy families did far better on the tests.
They concluded that kids in the low-income families saw their growth and development in that part of the brain affected.
The study was published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience