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Researchers at UC-Berkeley have found that kids from low-income backgrounds demonstrate "a noticeably lower level of activity in the prefrontal cortext, the part of the brain that is important for creativity and problem solving."

From study co-author Robert Knight:

"Kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult.

"We found that kids are more likely to have a low response if they have low socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is poor has low frontal lobe response."

I'd like to know what other similarities these children have, because I just cannot believe this is the only correlation. Could it just be a coincidence, is it because these children haven't been stimulated as much? It's all interesting to me, but at the same time I find it hard to believe that "status" could cause such a difference in brain function.

The frontal lobes are considered our emotional control center and home to our personality. So does this mean children who come from a low-income home have trouble with their emotions? Maybe because their parents are stressed about finances or their parents aren't around much because they are out trying to make ends meet?

So why doesn't the study say anything about the impact of parental involvement or lack thereof? One of the most common characteristics of frontal lobe damage is difficulty in interpreting feedback from the environment. So would this mean with proper behavioral therapy or stimulation that they would be able to learn how to better interpret things? It just seems like something is missing from this research. That's just me though. =o)

Labels: brain, status