News from UC Berkeley highlights recent research that seems pretty important to me…

BERKELEY — 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 by 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.

You can read the entire article here.

Personally, I’m not sure why this is so surprising to people. We’ve known for years that trauma causes changes to the brain — both chemically and cognitively and physically. And poverty contributes to trauma. Of course, there may be a chicken-or-the-egg connection — which comes first, the poverty or the impaired brain function? — but at least someone is getting tangible measurements about the interplay between socioeconomic status and cognitive functioning.

This puts a new spin on haves and have-nots.