Citation

Mackey AP, Finn AS, Leonard JA, Jacoby-Senghor DS, West MR, Gabrieli CF, Gabrieli JD. Psychol. Sci. 2015; 26(6): 925-933.

Affiliation

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/0956797615572233

PMID

25896418

Abstract

In the United States, the difference in academic achievement between higher- and lower-income students (i.e., the income-achievement gap) is substantial and growing. In the research reported here, we investigated neuroanatomical correlates of this gap in adolescents (N = 58) in whom academic achievement was measured by statewide standardized testing. Cortical gray-matter volume was significantly greater in students from higher-income backgrounds (n = 35) than in students from lower-income backgrounds (n = 23), but cortical white-matter volume and total cortical surface area did not differ significantly between groups. Cortical thickness in all lobes of the brain was greater in students from higher-income than lower-income backgrounds. Greater cortical thickness, particularly in temporal and occipital lobes, was associated with better test performance. These results represent the first evidence that cortical thickness in higher- and lower-income students differs across broad swaths of the brain and that cortical thickness is related to scores on academic-achievement tests.

Language: en