Posted on 12/06/2008 6:46:25 PM PST by fightinJAG
ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2008) — University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.
In a study recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.
Brain function was measured by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG) – basically, a cap fitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain – like that used to assess epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain tumors.
"Kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult," said Robert Knight, director of the institute and a UC Berkeley professor of psychology. "We found that kids are more likely to have a low response if they have low socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is poor has low frontal lobe response."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
I rather think the brains of rich kids are the ones that are “different.”
Hey, howzabout this? Their socio-economic condition is not the cause of this but they are in their socio-economic condition because of this. A single mother with no education and work ethic is likely to raise stupid kids with no discipline.
I’ve known plenty of rich kids that acted like they were repeatedly dropped on their heads as babies.
FMCDH(BITS)
That seems to be somewhat problematic, nicht wahr?
Does the article account for the fact that perhaps some of the low-income kids have these prefrontal abnormalities because of their mom’s substance abuse during pregnancy?
In other words, those who possess cognition have cognitive differences from those who don’t.
I’d put this discovery right up there with the guy who figured out the moon got larger then the moon got smaller, and it seemed to repeat every thirty days.
Are they suggesting low-income children (presumably their talking about this country) don’t get enough nutrition? It’s more likely they’ve inherited their parents intelligence...
My guess would be that poor people, on balance, are at the low end of the intelligence scale.
It’s really not that difficult to hold down a good job in this country.
I suspect the real goal of the study was to make the Berkley researchers feel smart and important. I’m sure they’ll be needing more money to study further.
That should be the headline... and the real focus of the study. Not likely to happen, though. Too big a chance of getting non-PC answers.
They are suggesting that if you throw money at “poor” people, they would not have had this result. One of the researchers even said that since poor kids “went to fewer museums,” that affected their brain development.
Of course not.
Good grief. I came from a poor family and I’m smart. At least I think so! Our parents and grandparents weren’t all born into middle class homes and they did very well for themselves. Some of these studies are so ridiculous and this is just one of them.
There are probably many variables other than income here. Many of these kids may be from immigrant families with poor English skills, others may be from native born families that are only marginally literate, most of them probably suffer from non-existent parenting in mother-headed households, etc. In other words, they suffer from cultural deprivation, particularly in the area of language (which obviously affects one’s ability to reason). Poverty in itself is not the cause.
I’m not defending poverty, btw. Being poor certainly makes everything harder. But it’s not the cause of their wretched cognitive development.
Raised poor here too. Wealth as absolutely no bearing on intelligence, period.
horse hockey. What the he!! does RESEMBLE mean?
More then likley they were raised ‘Rat rather then poor....
Personally, I think the University of Berkeley researchers have the cart before the horse... Or in other words, the “effect” is the cause.
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