-By Jake T. Snake
So I open up the local newspaper last week and I see this gannett article that has suddenly popped up virtually everywhere. These kind of articles in the mainstream media always make me a little nervous, so I track down the abstract(the article hasn't actually been published yet). I include this below for your edification.
Socioeconomic Disparities Affect Prefrontal Function in Children
By Kishiyama MM, Boyce WT, Jimenez AM, Perry LM, Knight RT.
Social inequalities have profound effects on the physical and mental health of children. Children from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds perform below children from higher SES backgrounds on tests of intelligence and academic achievement, and recent findings indicate that low SES (LSES) children are impaired on behavioral measures of prefrontal function. However, the influence of socioeconomic disparity on direct measures of neural activity is unknown. Here, we provide electrophysiological evidence indicating that prefrontal function is altered in LSES children. We found that prefrontal-dependent electrophysiological measures of attention were reduced in LSES compared to high SES (HSES) children in a pattern similar to that observed in patients with lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) damage. These findings provide neurophysiological evidence that social inequalities are associated with alterations in PFC function in LSES children. There are a number of factors associated with LSES rearing conditions that may have contributed to these results such as greater levels of stress and lack of access to cognitively stimulating materials and experiences. Targeting specific prefrontal processes affected by socioeconomic disparity could be helpful in developing intervention programs for LSES children.
The research is also discussed here, here and here.
I could write for days about this article, but I won't do that to any of you, because I like you. These type of discoveries always lead to the inevitable nature versus nurture debate which is a false bifurcation of the world. The right will use this research to prove that poor kids are just born that way and that trying to intervene to ameliorate these effects is useless anyway. Those of a more progressive stripe will argue for more intervention and programs to undo the damage done by environmental factors. I fall squarely in the second camp. Let me explain why.
What would you say if I told you that we have proof that the functioning, the neural pathways, the chemical responses and even the structure of the brain can be altered by experience, both positively and negatively? If I told you that mental illness can be a result of environmental factors, rather than biologically predetermined at the moment of conception? We have this proof. All we need to do is look at the veterans returning from combat who are experiencing post traumatic stress disorder. The experience of war has changed them mentally and physically and altered the way their minds and bodies work. We know that people with PTSD exhibit structural changes in their brains and changes in brain functioning, that they have elevated pulse rates, blood pressure and other changes in physical functioning. Interestingly, one of the hypotheses brought forward for the differences in poor kids brain function is stress and exposure to the resulting stress hormones in daily life, akin in some ways to our combat veterans.
The brain has almost limitless plasticity and ability to evolve and adapt to the context it is in to survive. Even PTSD is an appropriate adaptation if it helps you to survive in a particular context. The brain prioritizes and spends its resources on those functions most vital to survival. If that happens to be old brain stuff, rather than executive functions well as far as our brains are concerned it is better to survive, even if you haven't successfully memorized thos vocabulary words for this week's class.
I have worked with these children and the situation is even more dire, because when they are found to have problems with impulse control (an executive function) for example, a diagnosis of attention deficit problems is made and we begin medicating them adding more chemicals (usually stimulants) to a brain already awash in stress hormones. One of the other characteristics of those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder is high levels of anxiety best exemplified in what is known as an elevated startle response. These are the folks who end up on the ceiling after you tap them on the shoulder to say hello. Let us consider for a moment what we would be creating if a child was dealing with PTSD symptoms, was already wound very tightly and our solution was to give them an amphetamine.
The truth is that we all receive a genetic inheritance that presents a spectrum of possibilities. Biology is not destiny. We can provide a rich environment that maximizes the possibilities that children have or we can continue to sacrifice the next generation, because we have a significant investment in punishing their parents for having the audacity to be poor. Much like with health insurance, there are workable models out there that demonstrate how to provide for the greater good rather than remaining social darwinists. I fear that we lack the will and resolve to help our fellow human beings, even when they are children.
