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It is not only bigger trust funds that the children of the wealthy inherit — it could be bigger brains too.
A study has found that every pound extra that a child’s parents earn translates, on average, into a corresponding increase in the brain’s surface area.
The researchers said that the parts of the brain associated with language and higher functions were disproportionately affected.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the brains of more than 1,000 American children aged between three and 20 were analysed and compared with other factors such as parental education and income.
The scientists found that income was related to average brain surface area.
The effect of extra earnings made the most difference among the poorest and then tailed off. However, it still continued as families became wealthier. This led the authors, from the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, to suggest that interventions with poor families could represent good value for money.
“Poverty is a problem,” said Professor Elizabeth Sowell. “We’re now seeing this physical difference in the brain.
“In a family earning $25,000 or less the brain surface area was 6 per cent smaller than in families earning $150,000 or more. It is a small difference, but it is highly significant and much more prominent in children who are more disadvantaged economically.”
The scientists suggested that the link between income and brain size could be related to the extra advantages that money can buy. “People with money can buy good food,” Professor Sowell said. “They can get a better house in a better neighbourhood, with a safer environment. They can have better education, and better community support.” She said that, given this, it was not surprising that the effect was disproportionately high among the poor. “For a family making $20,000 a year, an extra $5,000 is a lot,” she said. “It is the difference between having trouble deciding to pay the rent versus buying food to having enough to cover both. For families making $100,000, it is the difference between which summer camp their children go to.”
The scientists also found that there was a correlation between parental education and brain size, with surface area increasing for each extra year of education the children’s parents had. They now want to extend the research by giving a group of low income families half a monthly stipend, then seeing if there is a later effect on children’s brain surface area.
Professor Sowell emphasised that the effects did not indicate a predetermined destiny. “Even among the poorest, some kids had brains like those whose families earned $300,000,” she said. “Not every poor kid has a smaller brain than every rich kid.”
Equally, research in neuroscience had shown the brain has an extraordinary ability to change over time.
“This is not static,” Professor Sowell said. “It is not the case that if you are poor your brain is smaller for the rest of your life. We know that environment has a lot of impact.”
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