So, does being poor impact your brain, or are people with decreased cognitive ability poor?
Some people may have strong opinions on the above question. Probably broadly along political partisan lines. But the best place to answer this question is with research and science and the answer is coming firmly down on the side of, poverty disrupts your brain. If I were being dramatic, I might say it "wreaks havoc" "destroys" or some other emotional descriptions. They might actually be very good descriptions.
But how?
First, let's review some recent research out which is really interesting because it scanned newborn babies' brains while they were sleeping. This is really important because it showed that this life disadvantage is there right from day one. That is very worrying.
The researchers at Washington University School of Medicine analysed a sample of 399 mothers and their babies. 280 of these were at a social disadvantage - scientific language for being poor. And these newborns showed significant differences to their brains to babies born to mothers in better social conditions.
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