Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA.
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, USA.
Dev Sci. 2022 Sep;25(5):e13245. doi: 10.1111/desc.13245. Epub 2022 Feb 22.
There is strong support for the view that children growing up in low-income homes typically evince poorer performance on tests of inhibitory control compared to those growing up in higher income homes. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the work documenting this association has been conducted in high-income countries. It is not yet known whether the mechanisms found to mediate this association would generalize to children in low- and middle-income countries, where the risks of exposure to extreme poverty and a wide range of both biological and psychosocial hazards may be greater. We examined relations among early adversity, neural correlates of inhibitory control, and cognitive outcomes in 154 5-year-old children living in Dhaka, Bangladesh, an area with a high prevalence of poverty. Participants completed a go/no-go task assessing inhibitory control and their behavioral and event-related potential responses were assessed. Cortical source analysis was performed. We collected measures of poverty, malnutrition, maternal mental health, psychosocial adversity, and cognitive skills. Supporting studies in high-income countries, children in this sample exhibited a longer N2 latency and higher P3 amplitude to the no-go versus go condition. Unexpectedly, children had a more pronounced N2 amplitude during go trials than no-go trials. The N2 latency was related to their behavioral accuracy on the go/no-go task. The P3 mean amplitude, behavioral accuracy, and reaction time during the task were all associated with intelligence-quotient (IQ) scores. Children who experienced higher levels of psychosocial adversity had lower accuracy on the task and lower IQ scores.
有一种观点得到了广泛支持，即与在高收入家庭中成长的孩子相比，在低收入家庭中成长的孩子在抑制控制测试中的表现通常较差。不幸的是，绝大多数记录这种关联的工作都是在高收入国家进行的。目前还不清楚在中低收入国家，发现的中介这种关联的机制是否会推广到儿童身上，因为这些国家的儿童面临极端贫困和各种生物及心理社会危害的风险可能更大。我们在孟加拉国达卡的 154 名 5 岁儿童中研究了早期逆境、抑制控制的神经相关性和认知结果之间的关系，该地区贫困率很高。参与者完成了一项 Go/No-Go 任务，评估抑制控制能力，评估他们的行为和事件相关电位反应。进行了皮质源分析。我们收集了贫困、营养不良、产妇心理健康、心理社会逆境和认知技能的测量值。支持高收入国家的研究，该样本中的儿童在 Go/No-Go 条件下表现出更长的 N2 潜伏期和更高的 P3 振幅。出乎意料的是，与 No-Go 试验相比，儿童在 Go 试验中的 N2 振幅更大。N2 潜伏期与他们在 Go/No-Go 任务中的行为准确性有关。任务期间的 P3 平均振幅、行为准确性和反应时间均与智商（IQ）分数相关。经历较高水平心理社会逆境的儿童在任务中的准确性较低，智商分数也较低。
