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Language processing following childhood poverty: Evidence for disrupted neural networks.
Suzanne C Perkins1, S Shaun Ho2, Gary W Evans3
1Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, United States.
Brain and Language
|April 19, 2024
Summary
Childhood poverty impacts adult language skills and brain function. Even when current abilities are similar, poverty history alters neural networks for language processing.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Socioeconomic Studies
Background:
- Childhood poverty is linked to cognitive deficits, including adult language function.
- The neurobiological underpinnings of language in adults with childhood poverty backgrounds remain unclear, even when controlling for current functioning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if childhood poverty disrupts the brain basis of language processing in adulthood.
- To examine the relationship between childhood poverty, phonological awareness, and neural activity during language tasks.
Main Methods:
- Utilized event-related fMRI during a speech/print processing task in 51 adults (age 24) from a longitudinal childhood poverty study.
- Assessed behavioral phonological awareness (LP) and analyzed brain activation and functional connectivity (PPI).
Main Results:
- Adults with childhood poverty backgrounds showed lower phonological awareness (LP).
- The childhood poverty group exhibited altered neural activation patterns in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and hippocampus.
- Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses revealed distinct connectivity patterns between language-related brain regions (Broca's, MTG, Wernicke's) in the poverty group.
Conclusions:
- Childhood poverty disrupts the neural networks supporting language processing in adulthood, independent of current phonological awareness.
- These findings suggest that early life socioeconomic disadvantage has lasting effects on the neurophysiological basis of language.
Keywords:
Functional connectivityLongitudinal studyPerisylvian regionPsychophysiological interaction analysisTask-based fMRIMore Related Videos
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