Raizada Rajeev D S, Kishiyama Mark M
Neukom Institute for Computational Science, Dartmouth College Hanover, NH, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2010 Feb 5;4:3. doi: 10.3389/neuro.09.003.2010. eCollection 2010.
THE STUDY OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) AND THE BRAIN FINDS ITSELF IN A CIRCUMSTANCE UNUSUAL FOR COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE: large numbers of questions with both practical and scientific importance exist, but they are currently under-researched and ripe for investigation. This review aims to highlight these questions, to outline their potential significance, and to suggest routes by which they might be approached. Although remarkably few neural studies have been carried out so far, there exists a large literature of previous behavioural work. This behavioural research provides an invaluable guide for future neuroimaging work, but also poses an important challenge for it: how can we ensure that the neural data contributes predictive or diagnostic power over and above what can be derived from behaviour alone? We discuss some of the open mechanistic questions which Cognitive Neuroscience may have the power to illuminate, spanning areas including language, numerical cognition, stress, memory, and social influences on learning. These questions have obvious practical and societal significance, but they also bear directly on a set of longstanding questions in basic science: what are the environmental and neural factors which affect the acquisition and retention of declarative and nondeclarative skills? Perhaps the best opportunity for practical and theoretical interests to converge is in the study of interventions. Many interventions aimed at improving the cognitive development of low SES children are currently underway, but almost all are operating without either input from, or study by, the Cognitive Neuroscience community. Given that longitudinal intervention studies are very hard to set up, but can, with proper designs, be ideal tests of causal mechanisms, this area promises exciting opportunities for future research.
社会经济地位（SES）与大脑的研究发现自身处于认知神经科学领域一种不寻常的情况：存在大量具有实际和科学重要性的问题，但目前研究不足且亟待研究。本综述旨在突出这些问题，概述其潜在重要性，并提出研究这些问题的途径。尽管到目前为止进行的神经学研究非常少，但此前已有大量行为学研究文献。这项行为学研究为未来的神经影像学研究提供了宝贵的指导，但也给它带来了一个重要挑战：我们如何确保神经数据能提供超越仅从行为中得出的预测或诊断能力？我们讨论了认知神经科学可能有能力阐明的一些开放性机制问题，涵盖语言、数字认知、压力、记忆以及学习中的社会影响等领域。这些问题具有明显的实际和社会意义，但它们也直接涉及基础科学中的一系列长期问题：影响陈述性和非陈述性技能获取与保留的环境和神经因素有哪些？或许实践和理论兴趣融合的最佳机会在于干预研究。目前正在进行许多旨在改善低社会经济地位儿童认知发展的干预措施，但几乎所有这些措施都没有认知神经科学领域的参与或研究。鉴于纵向干预研究很难开展，但通过适当设计可以成为因果机制的理想测试，这一领域为未来研究带来了令人兴奋的机会。
