Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, 5050 Anthony Wayne Dr., Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
Department of Pharmacy Practice, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Ave., Detroit, MI, 48201, USA.
Neuroimage. 2019 Jan 1;184:729-740. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.077. Epub 2018 Oct 1.
Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) during childhood has been linked to disparities in physical and mental health. A growing body of research has focused on identifying neurodevelopmental consequences of SED, commonly measured using within-household factors (e.g., household income), to better understand the processes underlying SED-related disparities. These studies suggest that childhood SED has a widespread impact on brain development, altering development of multiple brain regions simultaneously. These findings also raise the possibility that childhood SED impacts development of key brain systems, such as the salience and emotion network (SEN), which is positioned at the intersection of brain systems involved in cognitive and emotion-related functioning and is thought to mediate information flow within and between these networks. The present study tests for associations between household- and community-level SED, as well as their interaction, and measures of SEN-based functional neural organization in 57 children and adolescents (ages 6-17). We applied graph theoretical analyses to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to examine SEN-based functional network topology. Results showed that youth residing in more distressed communities demonstrate lower hub-like properties (i.e., less efficient global information transfer and fewer connections) of two core SEN nodes - the anterior cingulate cortex and the left supramarginal gyrus. Similarly, lower household income was associated with lower efficiency of the anterior cingulate, but had no effect on the supramarginal gyrus. There was, however, an interaction between income and community SED in the rostral prefrontal cortex, such that higher income was associated with higher clustering coefficient and lower betweenness centrality, suggesting greater local processing and lower influence of this region on information flow across the network. These effects were significant only among youth living in low (but not high) SED communities, suggesting that within-household SED factors may not protect against the detrimental effects of a disadvantaged community context. Similarly, the age-related increase in average path length of the left rostral prefrontal cortex was only significant among youth living in low (but not high) SED communities. Given that maturation of the SEN is considered to be a critical functional backbone supporting the development of more flexible cognitive and emotional processes into adulthood, we tested for links between SEN graph metrics and measures of cognitive and emotion-related functioning. We found that higher community SED and lower income were both associated with lower IQ. Lower IQ, in turn, was associated with global efficiency of the left supramarginal gyrus. Observed effects of SED on SEN-based functional neural organization may help to explain the strong and pervasive link between childhood SED and disparities in cognitive and emotional outcomes.
社会经济地位低下（SED）在儿童时期与身心健康方面的差异有关。越来越多的研究集中在识别 SED 的神经发育后果上，通常使用家庭内部因素（例如家庭收入）来衡量，以便更好地理解 SED 相关差异背后的过程。这些研究表明，儿童时期的 SED 对大脑发育有广泛的影响，同时改变多个大脑区域的发育。这些发现还提出了一种可能性，即儿童时期的 SED 会影响关键大脑系统的发育，例如突显和情绪网络（SEN），该网络位于涉及认知和情绪相关功能的大脑系统的交汇处，被认为介导了这些网络之间的信息流。本研究测试了家庭和社区层面的 SED 及其相互作用与 57 名儿童和青少年（6-17 岁）的 SEN 为基础的功能神经组织之间的关联。我们应用图论分析对静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据进行了分析，以检查基于 SEN 的功能网络拓扑。结果表明，居住在受灾社区的年轻人表现出两个核心 SEN 节点（即前扣带回皮层和左缘上回）的枢纽样特性（即全球信息传递效率较低，连接较少）较低。同样，较低的家庭收入与前扣带效率降低有关，但对缘上回没有影响。然而，收入和社区 SED 之间存在交互作用，即额前皮质的聚类系数较高，介数中心度较低，这表明该区域的局部处理能力更高，对网络中信息流的影响较低。这些影响仅在生活在低 SED 社区（而不是高 SED 社区）的年轻人中显著，这表明家庭内部 SED 因素可能无法防止不利社区环境的不利影响。同样，左额前皮质平均路径长度的年龄相关性增加仅在生活在低 SED 社区（而不是高 SED 社区）的年轻人中显著。鉴于 SEN 的成熟被认为是支持认知和情绪过程向成年期更灵活发展的关键功能骨干，我们测试了 SEN 图度量与认知和情绪相关功能测量之间的联系。我们发现，社区 SED 较高和收入较低都与智商较低有关。反过来，智商较低与左缘上回的全局效率有关。SED 对基于 SEN 的功能神经组织的影响可能有助于解释儿童时期 SED 与认知和情绪结果差异之间的强烈而普遍的联系。
