Effects of socioeconomic status in predicting reading outcomes for children: The mediation of spoken language network

Neural bases of reading fluency: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Reading fluency, the ability to read quickly and accurately, is a critical marker of successful reading and is notoriously difficult to improve in reading disabled populations. Despite its importance to functional literacy, fluency is a relatively under-studied aspect of reading, and the neural correlates of reading fluency are not well understood. Here, we review the literature of the neural correlates of reading fluency as well as rapid automatized naming (RAN), a task that is robustly related to reading fluency. In a qualitative review of the neuroimaging literature, we evaluated structural and functional MRI studies of reading fluency in readers from a range of skill levels. This was followed by a quantitative activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis of fMRI studies of reading speed and RAN measures. We anticipated that reading speed, relative to untimed reading and reading-related tasks, would harness ventral reading pathways that are thought to enable the fast, visual recognition of words. The qualitative review showed that speeded reading taps the entire canonical reading network. The meta-analysis indicated a stronger role of the ventral reading pathway in rapid reading and rapid naming. Both reviews identified regions outside the canonical reading network that contribute to reading fluency, such as the bilateral insula and superior parietal lobule. We suggest that fluent reading engages both domain-specific reading pathways as well as domain-general regions that support overall task performance and discuss future avenues of research to expand our understanding of the neural bases of fluent reading.

Language processing following childhood poverty: Evidence for disrupted neural networks

Childhood poverty is related to deficits in multiple cognitive domains including adult language function. It is unknown if the brain basis of language is disrupted in adults with childhood poverty backgrounds, controlling for current functioning. Fifty-one adults (age 24) from an existing longitudinal study of childhood poverty, beginning at age 9, were examined on behavioral phonological awareness (LP) and completed an event-related fMRI speech/print processing LP task. Adults from childhood poverty backgrounds exhibited lower LP in adulthood. The middle-income group exhibited greater activation of the bilateral IFG and hippocampus during language processing. In psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, the childhood poverty group exhibited greater coupling between ventral Broca's and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) as well as coupling between Wernicke's region and bilateralization. Childhood poverty disrupts language processing neural networks in adulthood, after controlling for LP, suggesting that poverty in childhood influences the neurophysiological basis for language processing into adulthood.

The Necessity of Taking Culture and Context into Account When Studying the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Brain Development

Decades of research has revealed a relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and brain development at the structural and functional levels. Of particular note is the distinction between income and maternal education, two highly correlated factors which seem to influence brain development through distinct pathways. Specifically, while a families' income-to-needs ratio is linked with physiological stress and household chaos, caregiver education influences the day-to-day language environment a child is exposed to. Variability in either one of these environmental experiences is related to subsequent brain development. While this work has the potential to inform public policies in a way that benefits children, it can also oversimplify complex factors, unjustly blame low-SES parents, and perpetuate a harmful deficit perspective. To counteract these shortcomings, researchers must consider sociodemographic differences in the broader cultural context that underlie SES-based differences in brain development. This review aims to address these issues by (a) identifying how sociodemographic mechanisms associated with SES influence the day-to-day experiences of children, in turn, impacting brain development, while (b) considering the broader cultural contexts that may differentially impact this relationship.

Mediation of self-concept and moderation of teacher support between SES and reading achievement: Evidence from China and the United States

BACKGROUND

Socioeconomic status (SES) is important in students' reading development. The mechanism of how they are linked, however, is underexplored.

AIMS

This research aimed to explore whether reading self-concept mediates the link between SES and reading achievement and whether teacher support moderates the direct and indirect link between SES and reading achievement.

SAMPLES

Using PISA 2018 database, we selected 17,346 15-year-olds from 537 schools in B-S-J-Z (China) and the United States (U.S.).

METHODS

Multilevel linear models were calculated to explore the potential mediation of self-concept and the potential moderation of teacher support between SES and reading achievement.

RESULTS

Results reveal that reading self-concept mediated the link between SES and reading achievement at student level both in China and the United States, and teacher support moderated the link between SES and reading self-concept both at student level and school level only in China, but not in the United States.

CONCLUSION

Our research highlights the importance of self-concept and teacher support in improving students' reading achievement, especially for students of low SES, which has important theoretical significance and practical enlightenment for reading instruction.

Improvement of semantic processing ability of Chinese characters in school children: A comparative study based on 2009 and 2019 data

To explore the characteristics of semantic cognitive development of school children by observing the development changes over 10 years, a retrospective event-related potential (ERP) study was conducted on the semantic processing characteristics of Chinese characters in children aged 7–11 years with the same study design in 2009 and 2019. For the EEGs recorded in 2009, the N400 amplitude of semantic processing in children aged 7–11 years showed an approximately inverted U-shaped development trend with a slow rise at the age of 7–9, a peak at the age of 10, then a rapid decline at the age of 11. However, for the EEGs recorded in 2019, the N400 amplitude showed a gradually decreasing development trend with a slow decline for the 7–11 years class. Our data suggested that the semantic processing of Chinese characters in children aged 7–11 years in 2019 was one age stage earlier than that in 2009. The children’s brain cognition is in the process of development and change with high plasticity. 10 years of favorable social and educational environmental factors have significantly improved children’s semantic processing ability of Chinese characters.

Socioeconomic status and reading outcomes: Neurobiological and behavioral correlates

In this chapter, we examine reading outcomes and socioeconomic status (SES) using a developmental cognitive and educational neuroscience perspective. Our focus is on reading achievement and intervention outcomes for students from lower SES backgrounds who struggle with reading. Socioeconomic disadvantage is a specific type of vulnerability students experience, which is often narrowly defined based on parental income, education level, and/or occupational prestige. However, implications of socioeconomic status extend broadly to a suite of areas relevant for reading outcomes including a student's access to resources, experiences, language exposure, academic outcomes, and psychological correlates. Underlying this constellation of factors are brain systems supporting the processing of oral and written language as well as stress-related factors. We review the implications of SES and reading achievement, and their intersectionality, for the science and practice of reading instruction.

Towards a model of language neurobiology in early development

Understanding language neurobiology in early childhood is essential for characterizing the developmental structural and functional changes that lead to the mature adult language network. In the last two decades, the field of language neurodevelopment has received increasing attention, particularly given the rapid advances in the implementation of neuroimaging techniques and analytic approaches that allow detailed investigations into the developing brain across a variety of cognitive domains. These methodological and analytical advances hold the promise of developing early markers of language outcomes that allow diagnosis and clinical interventions at the earliest stages of development. Here, we argue that findings in language neurobiology need to be integrated within an approach that captures the dynamic nature and inherent variability that characterizes the developing brain and the interplay between behavior and (structural and functional) neural patterns. Accordingly, we describe a framework for understanding language neurobiology in early development, which minimally requires an explicit characterization of the following core domains: i) computations underlying language learning mechanisms, ii) developmental patterns of change across neural and behavioral measures, iii) environmental variables that reinforce language learning (e.g., the social context), and iv) brain maturational constraints for optimal neural plasticity, which determine the infant's sensitivity to learning from the environment. We discuss each of these domains in the context of recent behavioral and neuroimaging findings and consider the need for quantitatively modeling two main sources of variation: individual differences or trait-like patterns of variation and within-subject differences or state-like patterns of variation. The goal is to enable models that allow prediction of language outcomes from neural measures that take into account these two types of variation. Finally, we examine how future methodological approaches would benefit from the inclusion of more ecologically valid paradigms that complement and allow generalization of traditional controlled laboratory methods.

Socioeconomic status and the developing brain - A systematic review of neuroimaging findings in youth

A growing literature has shown associations between socioeconomic disadvantage and neural properties (such as brain structure and function). In this review, we aimed to synthesize findings on the neural correlates of socioeconomic status (SES) in youth samples across neuroimaging modalities. We also aimed to disentangle the effects of different SES measures (e.g., parent income and education) in our synthesis. We found relatively consistent patterns of positive associations between SES and both volume and cortical surface area of frontal regions, and amygdala, hippocampal, and striatal volume (with most consistent results for composite SES indices). Despite limited longitudinal work, results suggest that SES is associated with developmental trajectories of gray matter structure. Higher SES was also found to be associated with increased fractional anisotropy of some white matter tracts, although there were more null than positive findings. Finally, methodological heterogeneity in brain function and connectivity studies prevented us from making strong inferences. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for future research, discuss the role of mitigating factors, and implications for policy.

Similar but distinct - Effects of different socioeconomic indicators on resting state functional connectivity: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®

Early socioeconomic status (SES) has consistently been associated with child health and cognitive outcomes, in addition to alterations in brain function and connectivity. The goal of the present study was to probe the effects of different facets of SES (parent education, income, and neighborhood disadvantage), that likely represent varying aspects of the environment, on resting state functional connectivity (rsFC). We investigated this question in a large sample of 9475 children (aged 9–10 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Specifically, we analyzed the association between household SES (parent education, income-to-needs ratio) and neighborhood disadvantage, and system-level rsFC using within-sample split-half replication. We then tested whether the associations were unique to each SES measure, and whether household SES and neighborhood disadvantage had interactive effects on rsFC. SES measures had both common and distinct effects on rsFC, with sensory-motor systems (e.g., sensorimotor network) and cognitive networks (e.g., front-parietal network) particularly implicated. Further, the association between neighborhood disadvantage and sensorimotor network connectivity was less pronounced in the presence of high income-to-needs. Findings demonstrate that different facets of SES have distinct and interacting effects on rsFC, highlighting the importance of considering different indicators when studying the effects of SES on the brain.