Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.
Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."
Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.
Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.
His colleague, Professor Robert Knight, added: "This is a wake-up call - it's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status."
It's always possible that the differing brain function is the result of genetics. Perhaps genetically smarter people have higher incomes, and then pass on their superior genetics to their children.
Now, I don't believe that my hypothesis is the whole explanation. Nurture certainly plays a huge role, but I also think it is folly to chalk 100% of it up to nurture. Sure, it makes the problem solvable. Just redistribute wealth, and voila, smart kids. My point is that this will probably ameliorate some of the problems, but not solve them entirely.
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