Assari Shervin, Boyce Shanika, Saqib Mohammed, Bazargan Mohsen, Caldwell Cleopatra H
Department of Urban Public Health, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
Brain Sci. 2021 Mar 22;11(3):401. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11030401.
The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) is a cortical structure that has implications in cognition, memory, reward anticipation, outcome evaluation, decision making, and learning. As such, OFC activity correlates with these cognitive brain abilities. Despite research suggesting race and socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental education may be associated with OFC activity, limited knowledge exists on multiplicative effects of race and parental education on OFC activity and associated cognitive ability. Using functional brain imaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we tested the multiplicative effects of race and parental education on left lateral OFC activity during an N-Back task. In our study, we used a sociological rather than biological theory that conceptualizes race and SES as proxies of access to the opportunity structure and exposure to social adversities rather than innate and non-modifiable brain differences. We explored racial variation in the effect of parental educational attainment, a primary indicator of SES, on left lateral OFC activity during an N-Back task between Black and White 9-10 years old adolescents. The ABCD study is a national, landmark, multi-center brain imaging investigation of American adolescents. The total sample was 4290 9-10 years old Black or White adolescents. The independent variables were SES indicators, namely family income, parental education, and neighborhood income. The primary outcome was the average beta weight for N-Back (2 back versus 0 back contrast) in ASEG ROI left OFC activity, measured by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during an N-Back task. Ethnicity, age, sex, subjective SES, and family structure were the study covariates. For data analysis, we used linear regression models. In White but not Black adolescents, parental education was associated with higher left lateral OFC activity during the N-Back task. In the pooled sample, we found a significant interaction between race and parental education on the outcome, suggesting that high parental education is associated with a larger increase in left OFC activity of White than Black adolescents. For American adolescents, race and SES jointly influence left lateral OFC activity correlated with cognition, memory, decision making, and learning. Given the central role of left lateral OFC activity in learning and memory, our finding calls for additional research on contextual factors that reduce the gain of SES for Black adolescents. Cognitive inequalities are not merely due to the additive effects of race and SES but also its multiplicative effects.
眶额皮质（OFC）是一种皮质结构，与认知、记忆、奖励预期、结果评估、决策和学习有关。因此，OFC的活动与这些认知脑功能相关。尽管有研究表明种族和社会经济地位（SES）指标（如父母教育程度）可能与OFC活动有关，但关于种族和父母教育程度对OFC活动及相关认知能力的乘积效应的了解有限。利用青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD）研究的功能性脑成像数据，我们测试了种族和父母教育程度对N-回溯任务期间左侧眶额皮质活动的乘积效应。在我们的研究中，我们使用了一种社会学而非生物学理论，该理论将种族和SES概念化为获得机会结构和接触社会逆境的代理指标，而不是天生的、不可改变的脑差异。我们探讨了父母教育程度（SES的一个主要指标）对9至10岁黑人和白人青少年在N-回溯任务期间左侧眶额皮质活动影响的种族差异。ABCD研究是一项针对美国青少年的全国性、具有里程碑意义的多中心脑成像调查。总样本为4290名9至10岁的黑人或白人青少年。自变量是SES指标，即家庭收入、父母教育程度和邻里收入。主要结果是在N-回溯任务期间，通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量的ASEG ROI左侧眶额皮质活动中N-回溯（2回溯与0回溯对比）的平均β权重。种族、年龄、性别、主观SES和家庭结构是研究协变量。对于数据分析，我们使用了线性回归模型。在白人青少年而非黑人青少年中，父母教育程度与N-回溯任务期间左侧眶额皮质活动较高有关。在汇总样本中，我们发现种族和父母教育程度在结果上存在显著交互作用，这表明高父母教育程度与白人青少年而非黑人青少年左侧眶额皮质活动的更大增加有关。对于美国青少年，种族和SES共同影响与认知、记忆、决策和学习相关的左侧眶额皮质活动。鉴于左侧眶额皮质活动在学习和记忆中的核心作用，我们的发现呼吁对减少黑人青少年SES获益的背景因素进行更多研究。认知不平等不仅是由于种族和SES的相加效应，还包括其乘积效应。
