Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Publication Title
Imaging Neuroscience
Abstract
Growing evidence indicates that brain development varies as a function of family socioeconomic status (SES). Numer- ous studies have demonstrated that children from low-SES backgrounds have thinner cortex than children from higher- SES backgrounds. A recent study in a large developmental sample found widespread associations between lower SES and greater cortical T1w/T2w ratio—thought to be an indirect proxy for cortical myelin. We evaluated the association of family income with cortical T1w/T2w ratio as a function of age in the Human Connectome Project in Development sample of 989 youth aged 8-21 years. We observed no associations between family income and T1w/ T2w ratio that were significant after corrections for multiple comparisons at the region, network, or whole-brain level. Region of practical equivalence (ROPE) analyses were also consistent with the absence of an association between family income and T1w/T2w ratio. We discuss potential methodological sources of inconsistency between this and the previous study examining the same question. While the question of whether family income may influence cortical myelin development remains, these null results may indicate that the association between SES and cortical myelin development may not be as strong as with other aspects of brain structure.
Keywords
poverty, myelin, brain structure, cerebral cortex, socioeconomic status
Volume
1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00021
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© 2023 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Recommended Citation
Weissman, David G.; Baum, Graham L.; Sanders, Ashley; Rosen, Maya L.; Barch, Deanna M.; McLaughlin, Katie A.; and Sommerville, Leah H., "Family Income Is Not Significantly Associated with T1w/T2w Ratio in the Human Connectome Project in Development" (2023). Neuroscience: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/nsc_facpubs/160
Comments
Archived as published.