Growing up poor and stressed impacts brain function as an adult

"Childhood poverty and chronic stress may lead to problems regulating emotions as an adult, according to research published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our findings suggest that the stress-burden of growing up poor may be an underlying mechanism that accounts for the relationship between poverty as a child and how well your brain works as an adult," said Dr. K. Luan Phan, professor of psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and senior author of the study....

"The researchers found that test subjects who had lower family incomes at age 9 exhibited, as adults, greater activity in the amygdala, an area in the brain known for its role in fear and other negative emotions. These individuals showed less activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex, an area in the brain thought to regulate negative emotion...."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-10-poor-stressed-impacts-brain-function.html

Kim, et al. (2013). "Effects of childhood poverty and chronic stress on emotion regulatory brain function in adulthood." PNAS. Abstract.

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