Poverty and crime can have devastating effects on a child’s health, but some environmental factors influence the structure and f

Poverty and crime can have devastating effects on a child’s health, but some environmental factors influence the structure and f

unction of young brains even before birth.

A new study in JAMA Network Open shows that MRI scans performed on healthy newborns while they slept indicated that babies of mothers facing social disadvantages such as poverty tended to be born with smaller brains than babies whose mothers had higher household incomes.

MRI scans of full-term newborns born to mothers living in poverty revealed smaller volumes across the entire brain—including the cortical gray matter, subcortical gray matter, and white matter—than found in the brains of babies whose mothers had higher household incomes.

The brain scans, conducted only a few days to weeks after birth, also showed evidence of less folding of the brain among infants born to mothers living in poverty. Fewer and shallower folds typically signify brain immaturity. The healthy human brain folds as it grows and develops, providing the cerebral cortex with a larger functional surface area.

Read the full article about how crime and poverty affect babies' brains by Jim Dryden at Futurity.