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April 05, 2019 Friday 11:10:14 AM IST

Poverty Leads to Weaker Brain Activity in Children

Children from poor families have weaker brain activity, according to a comparative study done by University of East Anglia.

The researchers studied the brain activity of 42 children in the age group of 4 months to four years in rural areas in Shivgarh, Uttar Pradesh using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) devices. The visual working memory of the children were tested in which they had to detect colour change in squares. The details of income, educational attainment of parents, number of children in the family were collected. In comparison, the data of children from Midwest America was also collected. It was found that children from lower income groups displayed weaker brain activity. The left frontal cortex area also showed poorer distractor suppression.

The study underscores the need to introduce technological innovations to assess and correct learning problems among children of lower income groups.

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12822