Poverty Can Cause Brain Damage

[magekillr]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2008) University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.

 

 

 

In a study recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.

 

 

 

Brain function was measured by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG) basically, a cap fitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain like that used to assess epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain tumors.

 

 

 

"Kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult," said Robert Knight, director of the institute and a UC Berkeley professor of psychology. "We found that kids are more likely to have a low response if they have low socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is poor has low frontal lobe response."

 

 

 

Previous studies have shown a possible link between frontal lobe function and behavioral differences in children from low and high socioeconomic levels, but according to cognitive psychologist Mark Kishiyama, first author of the new paper, "those studies were only indirect measures of brain function and could not disentangle the effects of intelligence, language proficiency and other factors that tend to be associated with low socioeconomic status. Our study is the first with direct measure of brain activity where there is no issue of task complexity."

 

 

 

Co-author W. Thomas Boyce, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of public health who currently is the British Columbia Leadership Chair of Child Development at the University of British Columbia (UBC), is not surprised by the results. "We know kids growing up in resource-poor environments have more trouble with the kinds of behavioral control that the prefrontal cortex is involved in regulating. But the fact that we see functional differences in prefrontal cortex response in lower socioeconomic status kids is definitive."

 

 

 

Boyce, a pediatrician and developmental psychobiologist, heads a joint UC Berkeley/UBC research program called WINKS Wellness in Kids that looks at how the disadvantages of growing up in low socioeconomic circumstances change children's basic neural development over the first several years of life.

 

 

 

"This is a wake-up call," Knight said. "It's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status: fewer books, less reading, fewer games, fewer visits to museums."

 

 

 

Kishiyama, Knight and Boyce suspect that the brain differences can be eliminated by proper training. They are collaborating with UC Berkeley neuroscientists who use games to improve the prefrontal cortex function, and thus the reasoning ability, of school-age children.

 

 

 

"It's not a life sentence," Knight emphasized. "We think that with proper intervention and training, you could get improvement in both behavioral and physiological indices."

 

 

 

Kishiyama, Knight, Boyce and their colleagues selected 26 children ages 9 and 10 from a group of children in the WINKS study. Half were from families with low incomes and half from families with high incomes. For each child, the researchers measured brain activity while he or she was engaged in a simple task: watching a sequence of triangles projected on a screen. The subjects were instructed to click a button when a slightly skewed triangle flashed on the screen.

 

 

 

The researchers were interested in the brain's very early response within as little as 200 milliseconds, or a fifth of a second after a novel picture was flashed on the screen, such as a photo of a puppy or of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

 

 

 

"An EEG allows us to measure very fast brain responses with millisecond accuracy," Kishiyama said.

 

 

 

The researchers discovered a dramatic difference in the response of the prefrontal cortex not only when an unexpected image flashed on the screen, but also when children were merely watching the upright triangles waiting for a skewed triangle to appear. Those from low socioeconomic environments showed a lower response to the unexpected novel stimuli in the prefrontal cortex that was similar, Kishiyama said, to the response of people who have had a portion of their frontal lobe destroyed by a stroke.

 

 

 

"When paying attention to the triangles, the prefrontal cortex helps you process the visual stimuli better. And the prefrontal cortex is even more involved in detecting novelty, like the unexpected photographs," he said. But in both cases, "the low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well. They were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."

 

 

 

"These kids have no neural damage, no prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol, no neurological damage," Kishiyama said. "Yet, the prefrontal cortex is not functioning as efficiently as it should be. This difference may manifest itself in problem solving and school performance."

 

 

 

The researchers suspect that stressful environments and cognitive impoverishment are to blame, since in animals, stress and environmental deprivation have been shown to affect the prefrontal cortex. UC Berkeley's Marian Diamond, professor emeritus of integrative biology, showed nearly 20 years ago in rats that enrichment thickens the cerebral cortex as it improves test performance. And as Boyce noted, previous studies have shown that children from poor families hear 30 million fewer words by the time they are four than do kids from middle-class families.

 

 

 

"In work that we and others have done, it really looks like something as simple and easily done as talking to your kids" can boost prefrontal cortex performance, Boyce said.

 

 

 

"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens," he said. "But changing developmental outcomes might involve something as accessible as helping parents to understand that it is important that kids sit down to dinner with their parents, and that over the course of that dinner it would be good for there to be a conversation and people saying things to each other."

 

 

 

"The study is suggestive and a little bit frightening that environmental conditions have such a strong impact on brain development," said Silvia Bunge, UC Berkeley assistant professor of psychology who is leading the intervention studies on prefrontal cortex development in teenagers by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

 

 

 

Boyce's UBC colleague, Adele Diamond, showed last year that 5- and 6-year-olds with impaired executive functioning, that is, poor problem solving and reasoning abilities, can improve their academic performance with the help of special activities, including dramatic play.

 

 

 

Bunge hopes that, with fMRI, she can show improvements in academic performance as a result of these games, actually boosting the activity of the prefrontal cortex.

 

 

 

"People have tried for a long time to train reasoning, largely unsuccessfully," Bunge said. "Our question is, 'Can we replicate these initial findings and at the same time give kids the tools to succeed?'"

 

 

 

This research is supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.

 

 

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 092429.htm

 

 

 

Time and time again, these are the results of these studies. There have been previous studies showing structural differences caused by poverty, but this is the first actually showing that this translates into functional differences as far as I know.

 

 

 

I'm still holding my breath that this will change the opinions of conservatives on their idea that "everyone can make it if they just try hard enough, no need for welfare, poor people do badly because they're lazy".

[purfishx]

Ok, so what I gather is that poorer children get brain damage and what you have to do to combat this problem, is to sit down at dinner and talk to your children? :-s

 

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong?

[BlueLancer]

Ok, so what I gather is that poorer children get brain damage and what you have to do to combat this problem, is to sit down at dinner and talk to your children? :-s

 

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong?

 

 

 

You missed the deeper point behind talking to the children. Instead of just shoving them a microwave meal and sitting quiet in front of the TV, you can boost their brain activity by asking them about abstract things like "how was your day" or "what do you want to do tomorrow" & make them use their brain capacity.

 

 

 

Boyce's UBC colleague, Adele Diamond, showed last year that 5- and 6-year-olds with impaired executive functioning, that is, poor problem solving and reasoning abilities, can improve their academic performance with the help of special activities, including dramatic play.

 

 

 

Bunge hopes that, with fMRI, she can show improvements in academic performance as a result of these games, actually boosting the activity of the prefrontal cortex.

 

 

 

"People have tried for a long time to train reasoning, largely unsuccessfully"

 

 

 

The article suggests keeping your children active at all times. Don't put stress on them, there are millions of ways to be creative & have fun such as encouraging them to draw pictures & show them to you, play board games, etc...

 

 

 

Poverty unfortunately links with low intelligence in many societies, and some parents may not know what's best for their kids. Children from poor families are often deprived of brain stimulating activity and their brain can become "crippled" even at a very young age which is sad and will limit their future possibilities in life.

[l0l0lpur32]

What is your proposed solution? Make everyone equal by giving them all brain damage?

[Quoi_Tu]

And yet we still have a crummy system for assigning budgets for education.

[Barihawk]

What exactly are you asking "conservatives" to do? Throwing money at things is not going to solve anything. It's going to take something more. If you want to throw generalizations out there, there are tons of "liberals" who think that throwing money at every last problem is going to solve it. AIDS, dictators in Africa, poverty, disaster relief...money helps, but does it solve any problems or merely drag out the situation?

 

 

 

What, pray tell, do you propose we do?

 

 

 

Just like the article tells us that something is wrong although they don't know what causes it, you are implying that something is drastically wrong with how we provide for the impoverished without providing any input as to how we should fix it.

 

 

 

"everyone can make it if they just try hard enough, no need for welfare, poor people do badly because they're lazy".

 

 

 

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. I spend a lot of time in the frontlines of this very issue. My goal is to inspire students to reach out and get that associates or even just a bachelors degree that will vastly improve their lives and break their families free of the poverty trap. Hell, my neighbor is a young hispanic gentlemen who lives in the "economy" apartment. While he may not have much money he is finishing up his masters degree which he has slaved years in "low wage" jobs to pay for. When he finishes this degree, he's going to be going into chemical engineering and making more money than I can even imagine. I met his parents the other day. The father is a construction worker and the mother does laundry. They drive a beat up old car and certainly fit the appearance of people in poverty. They worked their entire lives to get their son this far, and it's going to pay off.

 

 

 

My family was penniless when they got off the boat 160 years ago. They were penniless 50 years ago. They worked hard to get their kids into college and it paid off.

 

 

 

It is not true that everyone can "make it" (what the hell does that mean, anyways?) if they work hard enough. What is true that if they work hard enough and instill these principles into their children, those children will certainly "make it." Is welfare needed to help those who are sick, old, and infirm? Yes. Is it needed for everyone who receives it? That's for the government to decide, not me. But I am going to go on trying to inspire kids to work hard even if their parents and society tells them not to.

[dragoonson]

Question to those who think poverty is easy to get out of:Why do you think they call it a Poverty Trap?

 

 

 

Seriously, is it because bear trapping is an easy way to earn money or something?

[RichieMcD]

It is not true that everyone can "make it" (what the hell does that mean, anyways?) if they work hard enough. What is true that if they work hard enough and instill these principles into their children, those children will certainly "make it.

 

 

 

I completely agree with you on this. My Dad and Grandparents lived in poverty. For the first 10 years off his life he was staying in different houses belonging to relatives while my grandparents built up enough money for a house. They then worked their [wagon] off to get him into college which instilled him with a hardworking personality.

 

 

 

He went to what would be considered a "ghetto" school. Now he's only 1 of 5 in his class to go to college and 1 of 3 from his entire year to earn a 5 figure sum per year. If people thought their children hard work will reap rewards instead of giving them a spoilt and lazy attitude society would have accomplished so much more through a simple attitude change. The reason why he did so well out of his class was down to his attitude. Everyone else in his class lived within the same means and conditions. Many were lazy and unwilling to work. Now many take their welfare check each week and struggle to get by.

 

 

 

I've had a hardworking attitude instilled into me through 2 generations. For my future careers course I need to average 98.3% in 6 state exams. Through the attitude which has been passed down to me I know I can achieve this as I'm willing to work for it, not sit on my [wagon], blame society and hope something comes my way.

 

 

 

You also raised some other good points in that post. Welfare will only help someone put food on the table, but it will not teach them how to put food on the table themselves.

[Roberthree]

Anyone who thinks hard work is all you need is very naive :roll:

 

 

 

My mother worked her [wagon] of her ENTIRE life. She finished college with great grades. She's a manager at TARGET. Life handed her [cabbage]ty cards from the start. She got pregnant as a teen but finished college anyways. Just as she graduated ALL the jobs in her field of study got shipped overseas.

 

 

 

Throwing examples back and forth is pointless since the people with the good stories about hard work not paying off DON'T HAVE COMPUTERS. The american dream is a lie.

[Lenticular_J]

Your sexual orientation can change the size of your brain, too. I don't think this constitutes as "damage".

 

 

 

What is your proposed solution? Make everyone equal by giving them all brain damage?

 

...This made me giggle.

 

 

 

Seriously, is it because bear trapping is an easy way to earn money or something?

 

Well, the Hudson Company sure thought trapping was good.

 

 

 

It is not true that everyone can "make it" (what the hell does that mean, anyways?) if they work hard enough. What is true that if they work hard enough and instill these principles into their children, those children will certainly "make it.

 

 

 

I completely agree with you on this.

 

Hey, I have a similar story. My parents had relatively tough lives - particularly my dad, the member of a huge family that got scammed out of land that would literally have made us billionaires had we kept it rather than selling it for a few bucks. But, he got an education to escape the trap that he knew he was falling into, and we moved from a trailer on the outskirts of a town to a bustling home in an equally bustling university town. I'll never forget how hard he's worked his life.

 

 

 

I don't really have much else to say.

[eggzs]

Poverty can also cause hunger, true fact.

[purfishx]

Poverty can also cause hunger, true fact.

 

 

 

lol.

[warri0r45]

 

I'm still holding my breath that this will change the opinions of conservatives on their idea that "everyone can make it if they just try hard enough, no need for welfare, poor people do badly because they're lazy".

 

 

 

What type of welfare are we talking about here? A free bus ticket to the library/museum? I'd agree with that. According to this study that kind of thing can help.

 

 

 

I agree with what Barihawk said:

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. I spend a lot of time in the frontlines of this very issue. My goal is to inspire students to reach out and get that associates or even just a bachelors degree that will vastly improve their lives and break their families free of the poverty trap.

 

 

 

I've always liked the idea of giving people the tools to get out of their situation themselves. Constantly giving everyone welfare isn't exactly conducive to people getting out of their situation.

[Wallettheif]

Poor people are a drag on society

 

 

 

I blame religion

[Zonorhc]

Poor people are a drag on society

 

 

 

I blame religion

 

And you say this with the hammer and sickle in your avatar.

[Barihawk]

Poor people are a drag on society

 

 

 

I blame religion

 

 

 

I'm sorry, blaming groups that collect money and use it to feed/shelter/provide for those in poverty?

[redhaloguy]

Good thing most rich kids act [bleep]ing snobby. So I'm ok with them mostly ruining there brain by doing drugs, alcohol and other things. As long as us who cannot afford are ok!

[Rebdragon]

News flash: having dumber parents tends to result in dumber kids.

 

 

 

Didn't see that one coming. Talk about facts out of left field.

[Giordano]

I thought it was obvious that Wallettheif's a troll.

 

 

 

But yeah..."brain damage"? Or different social upbringings?

[Zierro]

Poor people are a drag on society

 

 

 

I blame religion

 

 

 

You mean society is a drag on poor people.

[Housepig]

Personally, I think the article has got the wrong end of the stick: the fact that children have this "defect"--the article seems to be emplying that it's commonplace; perhaps it should be refered to as a difference? -- just postulating--is why they end up poor. Even if this indicates they can't do much about their situation, that's only because Western governments are so pitifully innefectual that they can'y do anything major to help them for fear of upsetting their popularity.

 

 

 

That's where democracy gets us.

 

 

 

 

 

Poor people are a drag on society

 

 

 

I blame religion

 

 

 

I'm sorry, blaming groups that collect money and use it to feed/shelter/provide for those in poverty?

 

 

 

Actualy, though religious groups do that, without religion, we would have had no Crusades, no "9/11" bombings, and no Holocaust. Religion does far more harm than good.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Is there a thread on OT which doesn't turn into some petty "religion/conservatism/capitalism vs atheism/liberatarianism/socialism" farce?

 

 

 

Even I'm getting bored of them.

[Bunnies]

Is there a thread on OT which doesn't turn into some petty "religion/conservatism/capitalism vs atheism/liberatarianism/socialism" farce?

 

 

 

Even I'm getting bored of them.

 

 

 

Ah, but Ginger - apart from Runescape [discussion of which is banned here], Religion and Politics are the only things worth talking about.

[The Observer]

Anyone who thinks hard work is all you need is very naive :roll:

 

 

 

My mother worked her [wagon] of her ENTIRE life. She finished college with great grades. She's a manager at TARGET. Life handed her [cabbage] cards from the start. She got pregnant as a teen but finished college anyways. Just as she graduated ALL the jobs in her field of study got shipped overseas.

 

 

 

Throwing examples back and forth is pointless since the people with the good stories about hard work not paying off DON'T HAVE COMPUTERS. The american dream is a lie.

 

 

 

Indeed.

 

 

 

My mom went through several years of university and now she's working in a cramped little office in the downtown of my city where she makes about 1/4 of the amount of money other people in her profession make.

[Saru Inc]

Is there a thread on OT which doesn't turn into some petty "religion/conservatism/capitalism vs atheism/liberatarianism/socialism" farce?

 

 

 

Even I'm getting bored of them.

 

 

 

Ah, but Ginger - apart from Runescape [discussion of which is banned here], Religion and Politics are the only things worth talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, basically, you're saying the parents aren't to be blamed AT ALL?? You sure about that?

 

 

 

Here's an idea: Don't buy the TV, orthe computer, unless needed for your job. If you're that poor, you could use that money, and your kids could use the exercise.

 

 

 

I imagine most of this stems from early childhood; when the baby is born, the mom sits it in front a mobile I think it's called, in the crib. When he's 4, the TV, when he's 10, the TV and the Computer, when he's 15 iPod, Tv, Computer, Movie Theater, Radio, he can't go anywhere where he can stimulate his brain; and still be in the norm. It HAS been shown that 'media,' (in general) has shown to "slow" people down mentally. The problem with kids these days, at least most of them, is that they can only have fun when being electronically stimulating.

 

 

 

And don't pretend we've not been working on this, with Boys and Girls clubs, and such, which is a form of day care where the kids won't be assimilated into the TV. Also, don't forget the enviroment, somekids don't WANT to learn; I realize they didn't say learning necessarily, but even asking stimulating questions, they simply don't care. The main problem, isn't bad parents, or a poor enviroment, or media or even role models, it's a combination of all, and the end resultant is apathy. Kids these days are too apathetic, why use your brain when you can use your eyes, much easier. All they care about is what's 'new and hot,' and not what's important for them. Even kids who are born intelligent, fake stupid, or fake apathy, and eventually they DON'T care. A kid in my English class had Principal's List (all A's) almost his whole high school career, well, he just dropped out about 3 weeks ago. He said he was sick of being the smart kid, and he was going to sell weed, in the ghetto to make his money.

 

 

 

If you want to blame it on the parents, sure, it is their fault for not being *good* role models. If you want to blame it on conservatives, sure, it's their fault for not giving them money to buy weed with. But really, what EVERYONE needs to do, is get active, and help out tutoring the kids who ARE trying, and help clean up the neighborhoods that these poor people live in, it may justchange their attitude. THE PROBLEM WITH LIBERALS (most at least) is that they think money will solve anything, they don't want to do the manpower needed.