Childhood Poverty and Chronic Stress Affects Brain Functions As Adults, Study Finds

Childhood poverty and chronic stress affects the way the brain functions and regulates emotions as adults.

Previous studies have found that childhood poverty affects the physical and psychological development of a child in many ways. A new study found that it could also affect the way the brain functions as an adult. Findings of a new study suggest that adults who experience poverty and chronic stress as children also have problems with regulating their emotions.

"Our findings suggest that the stress-burden of growing up poor may be an underlying mechanism that accounts for the relationship between poverty as a child and how well your brain works as an adult," said Dr. K. Luan Phan, professor of psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and senior author of the study.

The study examined the associations between childhood poverty at age 9, exposure to chronic stressors during childhood, and neural activity in areas of the brain involved in emotional regulation at age 24. Forty nine children belonging to low-income families took part in the study and data on family income, stressor exposures, physiological stress responses, socio-emotional development, and parent-child interactions were recorded.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers evaluated the participants' brain activity as they performed an emotional-regulation task. Subjects were asked to try to suppress negative emotions while viewing pictures, using a cognitive coping strategy.

Researchers noted that adults who belonged to low-income families at the age of 9 showed greater activity in the amygdala, an area in the brain known for its role in fear and other negative emotions and less activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area in the brain thought to regulate negative emotions. Both these areas of the brain have been associated with mood disorders including depression, anxiety, impulsive aggression and substance abuse.