Weissman David G, Baum Graham L, Sanders Ashley, Rosen Maya L, Barch Deanna M, McLaughlin Katie A, Somerville Leah H
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2023;1. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00021. Epub 2023 Oct 6.
Growing evidence indicates that brain development varies as a function of family socioeconomic status (SES). Numerous studies have demonstrated that children from low-SES backgrounds have thinner cortex than children from higher-SES backgrounds. A recent study in a large developmental sample found widespread associations between lower SES and greater cortical T1w/T2w ratio-thought to be an indirect proxy for cortical myelin. We evaluated the association of family income with cortical T1w/T2w ratio as a function of age in the Human Connectome Project in Development sample of 989 youth aged 8-21 years. We observed no associations between family income and T1w/T2w ratio that were significant after corrections for multiple comparisons at the region, network, or whole-brain level. Region of practical equivalence (ROPE) analyses were also consistent with the absence of an association between family income and T1w/T2w ratio. We discuss potential methodological sources of inconsistency between this and the previous study examining the same question. While the question of whether family income may influence cortical myelin development remains, these null results may indicate that the association between SES and cortical myelin development may not be as strong as with other aspects of brain structure.
越来越多的证据表明，大脑发育因家庭社会经济地位（SES）而异。大量研究表明，来自低社会经济地位背景的儿童的皮质比来自高社会经济地位背景的儿童更薄。最近一项针对大量发育样本的研究发现，较低的社会经济地位与较高的皮质T1w/T2w比率之间存在广泛关联，皮质T1w/T2w比率被认为是皮质髓磷脂的间接指标。在人类连接组计划中，我们对989名8至21岁青少年的发育样本进行了评估，研究家庭收入与皮质T1w/T2w比率随年龄变化的关系。在对区域、网络或全脑水平的多重比较进行校正后，我们未观察到家庭收入与T1w/T2w比率之间存在显著关联。实际等效区域（ROPE）分析也与家庭收入和T1w/T2w比率之间不存在关联一致。我们讨论了本研究与之前研究同一问题时结果不一致的潜在方法学原因。虽然家庭收入是否会影响皮质髓磷脂发育的问题仍然存在，但这些阴性结果可能表明，社会经济地位与皮质髓磷脂发育之间的关联可能不如与大脑结构的其他方面那么强。
