Our Opinion: Brain science alters "income gap' debate

Discussion of what has been labeled the "income gap" has focused largely on socioeconomic differences.

New research, however, indicates a family's socioeconomic status correlates with the surface area of their child's brain.

Why is this important?

Because nature, brain size, has joined nurture, family status, in influencing upward mobility.

"We've known for a long time that cognitive development, school performance and productivity in adult life can be impacted by socioeconomic status, but now we're actually seeing it in the brain," said Elizabeth Sowell. She is a developmental neuroscientist at the Saban Research Institute at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and lead investigator of the study, which was published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The research found that socioeconomic factors - including improved nutrition and health care, music lessons, etc. - physically reshape the brain over time. And those changes, particularly in surface area, have been associated with how the brain improves connectivity through a process similar to adding insulation to wiring.

According to a Los Angeles Times report: "Both income and education correlated with brain surface area, particularly in areas associated with language, reading and executive function. But further analysis showed that only income uniquely accounted for the variance in surface area, the study found."

Research found the variance in brain size was not linked to genetic ancestry or race. But researchers have not determined precisely how parental income determines brain development; they concede other factors linked to income may play a role.

The study, no doubt, will raise a number of behavioral, ethical and political questions.

Among them is whether children from poorer families can strive and attain upward mobility. The research says yes; although they begin at a competitive disadvantage, many of those children can and do achieve high goals.

Another focuses on how we - as a nation, state, community - address the income gap. Sowell, the neuroscientist, says: "We think that if we could make changes to enrich environments that we could alter development."

The ongoing income gap debate has changed. In addition to societal, economic and political aspects, it now includes a scientific, neurological component.