Abstract
Despite common notion that the correlation of socioeconomic status with child cognitive performance may be driven by both environmentally– and genetically–mediated transactional pathways, there is a lack of longitudinal and genetically informed research that examines these postulated associations. The present study addresses whether family income predicts associative memory growth and hippocampal development in middle childhood and tests whether these associations persist when controlling for DNA–based polygenic scores of educational attainment. Participants were 142 6–to–7–year–old children, of which 127 returned when they were 8–to–9 years old. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the association of family income with children's memory performance and hippocampal volume remained stable over this age range and did not predict change. On average, children from economically disadvantaged background showed lower memory performance and had a smaller hippocampal volume. There was no evidence to suggest that differences in memory performance were mediated by differences in hippocampal volume. Further exploratory results suggested that the relationship of income with hippocampal volume and memory in middle childhood is not primarily driven by genetic variance captured by polygenic scores of educational attainment, despite the fact that polygenic scores significantly predicted family income.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100720 |
| Journal | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Volume | 40 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2019 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Cognitive Neuroscience
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Stable longitudinal associations of family income with children's hippocampal volume and memory persist after controlling for polygenic scores of educational attainment. / Raffington, Laurel; Czamara, Darina; Mohn, Johannes Julius; Falck, Johannes; Schmoll, Vanessa; Heim, Christine; Binder, Elisabeth B.; Shing, Yee Lee.
In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 40, 100720, 12.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Stable longitudinal associations of family income with children's hippocampal volume and memory persist after controlling for polygenic scores of educational attainment
AU - Raffington, Laurel
AU - Czamara, Darina
AU - Mohn, Johannes Julius
AU - Falck, Johannes
AU - Schmoll, Vanessa
AU - Heim, Christine
AU - Binder, Elisabeth B.
AU - Shing, Yee Lee
PY - 2019/12
Y1 - 2019/12
N2 - Despite common notion that the correlation of socioeconomic status with child cognitive performance may be driven by both environmentally– and genetically–mediated transactional pathways, there is a lack of longitudinal and genetically informed research that examines these postulated associations. The present study addresses whether family income predicts associative memory growth and hippocampal development in middle childhood and tests whether these associations persist when controlling for DNA–based polygenic scores of educational attainment. Participants were 142 6–to–7–year–old children, of which 127 returned when they were 8–to–9 years old. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the association of family income with children's memory performance and hippocampal volume remained stable over this age range and did not predict change. On average, children from economically disadvantaged background showed lower memory performance and had a smaller hippocampal volume. There was no evidence to suggest that differences in memory performance were mediated by differences in hippocampal volume. Further exploratory results suggested that the relationship of income with hippocampal volume and memory in middle childhood is not primarily driven by genetic variance captured by polygenic scores of educational attainment, despite the fact that polygenic scores significantly predicted family income.
AB - Despite common notion that the correlation of socioeconomic status with child cognitive performance may be driven by both environmentally– and genetically–mediated transactional pathways, there is a lack of longitudinal and genetically informed research that examines these postulated associations. The present study addresses whether family income predicts associative memory growth and hippocampal development in middle childhood and tests whether these associations persist when controlling for DNA–based polygenic scores of educational attainment. Participants were 142 6–to–7–year–old children, of which 127 returned when they were 8–to–9 years old. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the association of family income with children's memory performance and hippocampal volume remained stable over this age range and did not predict change. On average, children from economically disadvantaged background showed lower memory performance and had a smaller hippocampal volume. There was no evidence to suggest that differences in memory performance were mediated by differences in hippocampal volume. Further exploratory results suggested that the relationship of income with hippocampal volume and memory in middle childhood is not primarily driven by genetic variance captured by polygenic scores of educational attainment, despite the fact that polygenic scores significantly predicted family income.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074159871&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85074159871&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100720
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100720
M3 - Article
C2 - 31678692
AN - SCOPUS:85074159871
VL - 40
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
SN - 1878-9293
M1 - 100720
ER -