“Early childhood poverty is a risk factor for lower school achievement, reduced earnings, and poorer health and has been associated with differences in brain structure and function”. Whether it is poverty itself or factors associated with it that cause neurodevelopmental changes is unknown.
From a study of a subset of the Babies First Year Study in which 1,000 diverse low-income mother-baby dyads were randomly assigned shortly after giving birth to receive either a large ($333 per month) or nominal ($20 per month) monthly unconditional cash gift (for the first several year of the child’s life) and infant brain activity assessed at approximately 1 year of age using resting electroencephalography (EEG – a key aspect of brain function which measures by power, frequency and a specific developmental pattern changes as a child matures).
It appears that giving monthly unconditional cash to poor mothers positively changes infant brain activity patterns usually reflective of that which is associated with the development of subsequent cognitive skills.
