It is well established that growing up in poverty correlates with disparities in educational achievement, health, and employment. Now an emerging branch of neuroscience asks how poverty affects the developing brain. Over the past 15 years, dozens of studies from Harvard University and Stanford University have found that children raised in meager circumstances have subtle brain differences compared with children from families of higher means. For people in poverty on average, the surface area of the brain's outer layer of cells is smaller, especially in areas relating to language and impulse control, as is the volume of a structure called the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory.
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Course Resources
IND-1385A Syllabus (PDF Document)