The Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
Psychology Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
Dev Sci. 2018 May;21(3):e12561. doi: 10.1111/desc.12561. Epub 2017 May 2.
An individual's socioeconomic status (SES) is often viewed as a proxy for a host of environmental influences. SES disparities have been linked to variance in brain structures particularly the hippocampus, a neural substrate of learning and memory. However, it is unclear whether the association between SES and hippocampal volume is similar in children and adults. We investigated the relationship between hippocampal volume and SES in a group of children (n = 31, age 8-12 years) and a group of young adults (n = 32, age 18-25 years). SES was assessed with four indicators that loaded on a single factor, therefore a composite SES scores was used in the main analyses. Hippocampal volume was measured using manual demarcation on high resolution structural images. SES was associated with hippocampal volume in the children, but not in adults, suggesting that in childhood, but not adulthood, SES-related environmental factors influence hippocampal volume. In addition, hippocampal volume, but not SES, was associated with scores on a memory task, suggesting that net effects of postnatal environmental factors, captured by SES, are more distal determinants of memory performance than hippocampal volume. Longitudinal investigation of the association between SES, hippocampal volume and cognitive functioning may further our understanding of the putative neural mechanisms underlying SES-related environmental effects on cognitive development.
个体的社会经济地位（SES）通常被视为一系列环境影响的代表。SES 差异与大脑结构的差异有关，特别是海马体，它是学习和记忆的神经基础。然而，目前尚不清楚 SES 与海马体体积之间的关联在儿童和成人中是否相似。我们在一组儿童（n=31，年龄 8-12 岁）和一组年轻成年人（n=32，年龄 18-25 岁）中研究了海马体体积与 SES 之间的关系。SES 用四个加载在单个因子上的指标进行评估，因此在主要分析中使用复合 SES 得分。使用高分辨率结构图像上的手动标记测量海马体体积。SES 与儿童的海马体体积有关，但与成年人无关，这表明在儿童期，而不是成年期，与 SES 相关的环境因素会影响海马体体积。此外，海马体体积而不是 SES 与记忆任务的得分相关，这表明 SES 所捕获的后天环境因素的净效应是记忆表现的更遥远决定因素，而不是海马体体积。对 SES、海马体体积和认知功能之间的关联进行纵向研究，可能会进一步了解 SES 对认知发展的环境影响背后的潜在神经机制。
