October 28, 2013

expert reaction to poverty in childhood affecting neurodevelopment

Children who grow up in poor families may have smaller hippocampus and amygdala volumes according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics.

Dr Sherif Karama is an Assistant Professor of clinical psychiatry at McGill University, said:

“This is a well-conducted study addressing a very important topic. Although the findings are not really surprising to me, they are important and fit well with previous work. This kind of work may go a long way, as the authors note themselves, in developing successful public health campaigns.

“Now, not that it takes anything away from this work, including the potential IQ confounder (perhaps parental IQ) in future analyses would be informative given that we know that IQ is in part heritable, is associated with brain structure, and associated with socio-economic status.”

Luby J, Belden A, Botteron K, et al. ‘The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development: The Mediating Effect of Caregiving and Stressful Life Events’ JAMA Pediatr.