It’s no secret that being born into a poor family can give you a rough start in life, but new research has shown that the amount of money parents have can actually change a child’s brain connectivity, and put them at greater risk of depression.
A team from Washington University St Louis analysed functional MRI scans of 105 children aged between 7 and 12, and found that key structures in the brain connect differently in poor children when compared to kids from a wealthy family. Importantly, those brain structures influence how children learn, and regulate their stress levels and emotions.
“Our past research has shown that the brain’s anatomy can look different in poor children, with the size of the hippocampus and amygdala frequently altered in kids raised in poverty,” said lead researcher Deanna Barch. “In this study, we found that the way those structures connect with the rest of the brain changes in ways we would consider to be less helpful in regulating emotion and stress.”
The study also found that kids who were poor in preschool were more likely […]
It looks like another good reason to start teaching meditation early in the lives of children to combat the problem and rebuild the brain which has been a proven outcome of meditation studies.