Children from less affluent families may be at a neurodevelopmental disadvantage due to their brains' decreased sensitivity to rewards, a recent study from MIT suggests. The study, which focused on the brain response of 12 to 14-year-old participants, highlights a potential link between socioeconomic status and how the striatum—a part of the brain associated with rewards—reacts to positive experiences. According to MIT News, children from lower-income homes displayed less striatum activity when they predicted events correctly in a guessing game geared to stimulate reward pathways.
Using fMRI technology, the researchers observed brain activity as participants played a game predicting whether a number would be higher or lower than five, with monetary rewards for correct guesses. This setup allowed for a controlled investigation of reward sensitivity across socioeconomic spectrums. In a statement obtained by MIT News, John Gabrieli, a professor at MIT and senior author of the study, described the environmental impact on brain development, noting that "in these adolescents, it’s shaping their psychological and brain response to reward opportunity."
The MIT team recruited over 100 adolescents from various socioeconomic backgrounds, gauging their status by factors such as household income and parental education levels. Results showed that youth from higher SES backgrounds had a more pronounced striatal response during the game, suggesting that their brains were more in tune with the availability of rewards. The researchers believe this could motivate individuals to act quickly to attain available rewards, a tendency that was less visible in those from lower SES backgrounds.
During periods when correct guesses were less frequent, and rewards scarcer, children from wealthier families showed a greater degree of activation in the striatum. However, these fluctuations were not as marked among participants from less affluent backgrounds, indicating an altered motivational signal within the brain for these children. “There was a reduced response to reward, which is really striking," Gabrieli told MIT News, highlighting the implications for motivation and expectancy developed in different socioeconomic environments.
The implications of this research shed light on possible cognitive behavior variations across socioeconomic divides, with more significant consequences that may extend to educational and mental health outcomes. Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the study advocates for the inclusion of more diverse socioeconomic groups in neurological research to better understand such developmental disparities.
