The Soul Calendar: Wondering about our universe and the universe inside us: astronomy, physics, psychology, neuroscience, earth sciences.
02 April 2009
Brain: Poverty Goes Straight to the Brain
From Denny: The blog Wired Science is carrying this interesting story right now. Science and the public have known for some time that children in poverty go to ill-equipped schools and score lower than middle class and wealthy children. What is new is from a long-term study that has found hormones produced from long-term stress literally wears down the brain. Chronic psychological stress is a key indicator of future low achievement into adulthood.
"A plausible contributor to the income-achievement gap is working-memory impairment in lower-income adults caused by stress-related damage to the brain during childhood," they wrote.
Why is working memory so important? Because it encapsulates the abilities for reading, language and problem-solving, all are critical for later success in life.
For the full article worth reading, go here.
Labels: news,science,funny,politics
Achievement gap in the United States,
health,
India,
Mental health,
Middle class,
Poverty,
Poverty threshold,
Problem solving,
stress,
Wired Science,
Working memory