How Poverty Changes The Human Brain

Given this fact, researchers have begun to investigate what happens in the opposite situation. Thus, they have observed that the lack of resources in poverty changes the human brain.

The first studies focused on trying to discover how socio-economic differences are reflected in a person’s behavior and cognition. Recent studies have focused on finding deviant neurological networks, functions, and structures based on the socioeconomic affiliation of the subject.

Despite this, researchers do not yet know exactly how these differences arise. However, there is enough evidence to confirm that poverty is changing the human brain.

Effect on the brain under development

These findings relate mainly to the child population because a developing brain is more sensitive to external factors. In addition to genetic factors, environmental factors also drive brain development. Thus, a person’s socioeconomic status can definitely affect the brain during this period.

Consequently, researchers discovered that the genetic burden on the development of brain structure and cognition is higher in people with high socioeconomic status. Thus, the characteristics of the surrounding environment can have a greater influence on those with lower socio-economic status.

Discoveries about how poverty changes the human brain

Language is one of the abilities that is most related to socioeconomic status during childhood. Research in this regard has demonstrated how poorer children show lower activity in the parts of the brain that handle language.

In terms of memory, the poorest children have a smaller hippocampus, this effect will persist for the next five decades, regardless of socio-economic conditions in adulthood.

The same is true for the amygdala, which is a part of the brain that handles emotional processing, learning and motivation. In this respect, the poorest children have a smaller amygdala, which can lead to reduced opportunities for emotional regulation.

In addition, when it comes to executive functions (more complex cognitive processes such as decision-making and planning), lack of stimulation and resources leads to negative changes and shortcomings.

As in the previous processes, there is a link between lower socio-economic status and poorer executive performance as well as to smaller volumes in the brain areas involved.

How poverty changes the adult human brain

Most of the effects of poverty detected in adults are due to a lower socio-economic status as a child. But there are also some effects that occur regardless of the type of childhood you have had.

For example, there is an interesting study, published in the journal Science, which shows that financial anxiety affects cognitive performance, especially when it comes to executive functions.

For research purposes, the researchers divided people into two groups based on a single criterion: difficulty with arithmetic. Thereafter, the participants in each group had to deal with a situation with either a major or a minor financial concern.

Both groups showed similar results for the lower variable. In the same way, people with greater financial worries obtained worse results with a more difficult variable. In other words , they showed a reduced ability to hold back inappropriate responses. They also had difficulty choosing appropriate alternatives and obtaining relevant information.

Mechanisms

• Lack of resources. Limited resources – such as books, toys and educational opportunities – undoubtedly affect the amount and quality of stimulation a person receives.
• Nutrition. Nutrients play a fundamental role in the human brain, especially when it comes to neurological development. Thus, the development of the brain is affected by a deficiency of vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, zinc and iron. This is because these substances affect plasticity, genetic manifestation and regulate the production of and quality of neurological networks.
• Stress. Both children and adults living in poverty are affected by the effects of stress. Exposure to a poor environment is related to increased cortisol production, which has devastating effects.
• Environmental toxicity. People with lower socio-economic status often live in toxic environments. For example, public housing near factories with pollution as a result.

In any case, the fight against poverty is not just a matter of health. Poverty is a variable that changes the human brain, and the cause of the context of very specific conditions which often create obstacles to human cognitive functions.