Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, France.
PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e42486. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042486. Epub 2012 Aug 3.
Children's cognitive abilities and school achievements are deeply affected by parental socioeconomic status (SES). Numerous studies have reported lower cognitive performance in relation to unfavorable environments, but little is known about the effects of SES on the child's neural structures. Here, we systematically explore the association between SES and brain anatomy through MRI in a group of 23 healthy 10-year-old children with a wide range of parental SES. We confirm behaviorally that language is one of the cognitive domains most affected by SES. Furthermore, we observe widespread modifications in children's brain structure. A lower SES is associated with smaller volumes of gray matter in bilateral hippocampi, middle temporal gyri, left fusiform and right inferior occipito-temporal gyri, according to both volume- and surface-based morphometry. Moreover, we identify local gyrification effects in anterior frontal regions, supportive of a potential developmental lag in lower SES children. In contrast, we found no significant association between SES and white matter architecture. These findings point to the potential neural mediators of the link between unfavourable environmental conditions and cognitive skills.
儿童的认知能力和学业成绩深受父母社会经济地位（SES）的影响。许多研究报告称，在不利环境下认知表现较低，但对于 SES 对儿童神经结构的影响知之甚少。在这里，我们通过 MRI 对一组 23 名健康的 10 岁儿童进行了系统研究，这些儿童的父母 SES 差异很大。我们从行为上证实语言是受 SES 影响最大的认知领域之一。此外，我们观察到儿童大脑结构的广泛改变。根据体积和表面形态计量学，较低的 SES 与双侧海马体、中颞叶、左侧梭状回和右侧下颞顶叶回灰质体积减小有关。此外，我们在前额区域发现了局部脑回的影响，支持 SES 较低的儿童可能存在发育滞后。相比之下，我们没有发现 SES 与白质结构之间存在显著关联。这些发现指出了不利环境条件与认知技能之间联系的潜在神经中介。
