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Effects of family income on brain functional connectivity in US children: associations with cognition

Molecular Psychiatry volume 28, pages 4195–4202 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Higher family income (FI) is associated with larger cortical gray matter volume and improved cognitive performance in children. However, little is known about the effects of FI on brain functional and structural connectivity. This cross-sectional study investigates the effects of FI on brain connectivity and cognitive performance in 9- to 11-years old children (n = 8739) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Lower FI was associated with decreased global functional connectivity density (gFCD) in the default-mode network (DMN), inferior and superior parietal cortices and in posterior cerebellum, and increased gFCD in motor, auditory, and extrastriate visual areas, and in subcortical regions both for girls and boys. Findings demonstrated high reproducibility in Discovery and Reproducibility samples. Cognitive performance partially mediated the association between FI and DMN connectivity, whereas DMN connectivity did not mediate the association between FI and cognitive performance. In contrast, there was no significant association between FI and structural connectivity. Findings suggest that poor cognitive performance, which likely reflects multiple factors (genetic, nutritional, the level and quality of parental interactions, and educational exposure [1]), contributes to reduced DMN functional connectivity in children from low-income families. Follow-up studies are needed to help clarify if this leads to reductions in structural connectivity as these children age.

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Fig. 1: Family income (FI), cognition, and gray matter.
Fig. 2: Reproducibility of the associations between Family income (FI) and functional connectivity.
Fig. 3: Region-of-interests (ROI) analyses.
Fig. 4: Causal mediation analysis (CMA).

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Data availability

ABCD data are publicly available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (https://data-archive.nimh.nih.gov/abcd).

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Adam Thomas, PhD, Dustin Moraczewski, PhD, and Eric Earl, BS (National Institute of Mental Health Data Science and Sharing Team) for providing access to the ABCD Community MRI Collection (NDA collection 3165) data on our servers. This study utilized the computational resources of the NIH HPC Biowulf cluster. (http://hpc.nih.gov). This work was done with support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Y1AA-3009; ZIAAA000550). Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the ABCD Study (https://abcdstudy.org/) and are held in the NIMH Data Archive. The ABCD Study is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ABCD consortium investigators did not participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators.

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  1. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Dardo Tomasi & Nora D. Volkow

  2. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Nora D. Volkow

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DT had full access to the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the statistical analyses. DT and NDV designed the study and drafted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dardo Tomasi.

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Tomasi, D., Volkow, N.D. Effects of family income on brain functional connectivity in US children: associations with cognition. Mol Psychiatry 28, 4195–4202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02222-9

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