Journal
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 309-326Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.3758/s13415-018-00670-3
Keywords
Family income; Hippocampus; Amygdala; Attentional bias; Middle childhood; Morphometry
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [R21HD078797, R01 HD090068]
- Professional Research Opportunity for Faculty (PROF)
- Faculty Research Fund (FRF)
- University of Denver
- Victoria S. Levin Award For Early Career Success in Young Children's Mental Health Research, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
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Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with higher rates of psychopathology as well as hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex structure. However, little is known about how variations in brain morphometry are associated with socio-emotional risks for mood disorders in children growing up in families experiencing low income. In the current study, using structural magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and gray matter volume in the hippocampus, amygdala, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in a sample of children (n = 34) in middle childhood. Using an affective dot probe paradigm, we examined the association between gray matter volume in these regions and attentional bias to threat, a risk marker for mood disorders including anxiety disorders. We found that lower income-to-needs ratio was associated with lower bilateral hippocampal and right amygdala volume, but not prefrontal cortex volumes. Moreover, lower attentional bias to threat was associated with greater left hippocampal volume. We provide evidence of a relationship between income-related variations in brain structure and attentional bias to threat, a risk for mood disorders. Therefore, these findings support an environment-morphometry-behavior relationship that contributes to the understanding of income-related mental health disparities in childhood.
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