Poverty in Preschoolers Alters Mood and Brain Connectivity in Later Childhood

More than 20% of children in the U.S. are living in poverty (http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/#5). These investigators examined whether poverty alters mood and functional connectivity of amygdala and hippocampus, determined with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The participants — 105 children with imaging data obtained at mean age of 10 years and with socioeconomic status established at ages 3 to 5 years — were drawn from a larger, longitudinal depression study in preschoolers who were oversampled for those with depressive symptoms. Children were comprehensively evaluated for depression at the time of scanning.

Greater poverty levels were associated with altered connectivity of hippocampus and amygdala with multiple cortic…