ArticleBiological psychiatry2019
Socioeconomic Disparities in Chronic Physiologic Stress Are Associated With Brain Structure in Children.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social withdrawal and hippocampal volume among adolescents at clinical high risk for psychosis and healthy comparisons: The moderating role of neighborhood residential stability.Schizophrenia research · 2026Article
- Executive functions as mediators of early educational disparities by SES, gender and birth month.NPJ science of learning · 2026Article
- Serotonin receptor 4 in the ventral CA3 regulates agomelatine-induced anxiolytic-like behaviors.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2026Article
- Social Determinants of Health, the developing brain, and risk and resilience for psychopathology.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Age-related patterns of resting EEG power in infancy: Associations with prenatal socioeconomic disadvantage.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic status, prefrontal cortical volume, and cardiometabolic risk in early adolescence.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Poverty and poor choices: socioeconomic gradients of unhealthy behaviors among adults in a multi-center cross-sectional study in Iran.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Associations Between Experience of Typical Variations in Stressors and Hippocampal Structure and Functional Connectivity in Childhood.International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Prenatal psychological stress mediates vertical transmission of gut microbiome to the next generation affecting offspring depressive-like behaviors and neurotransmitter.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- The role of socioeconomic status in shaping associations between sensory association cortex and prefrontal structure and implications for executive function.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Effects of Variations in Daily Cortisol Pattern and Long-Term Cortisol Output on Hippocampal Subfield Volumes in the Adult Human Brain.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- "Socioeconomic inequalities in health behaviors in children and adolescents: evidence from an Australian cohort".BMC public health · 2025Article
- Developmental perspectives on the origins of psychotic disorders: The need for a transdiagnostic approach.Development and psychopathology · 2024Review
- Measuring Socioeconomic and Stress Disparities in Infant Declarative Memory Using the Visual Paired Comparison Task.Developmental psychobiology · 2024Article
- Relations of Lifetime Perceived Stress and Basal Cortisol With Hippocampal Volume Among Healthy Adolescents and Those at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.Biological psychiatry · 2024Article
- Trajectories of brain and behaviour development in the womb, at birth and through infancy.Nature human behaviour · 2024Review
- The Necessity of Taking Culture and Context into Account When Studying the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Brain Development.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Stress Markers, Executive Functioning, and Resilience Among Early Adolescents With Complex Congenital Heart Disease.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic Disparities in Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Regulation and Prefrontal Cortical Structure.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Review
- Brain morphometry and chronic inflammation in Bangladeshi children growing up in extreme poverty.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocioeconomic factors have been consistently linked with the structure of children's hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Chronic stress-as indexed by hair cortisol concentration-may represent an important mechanism underlying these associations. Here, we examined associations between hair cortisol and children's hippocampal and ACC structure, including across hippocampal subfields, and whether hair cortisol mediated associations between socioeconomic background (family income-to-needs ratio, parental education) and the structure of these brain regions.
methodsParticipants were 5- to 9-year-old children (N = 94; 61% female) from socioeconomically diverse families. Parents and children provided hair samples that were assayed for cortisol. High-resolution, T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired, and FreeSurfer 6.0 was used to compute hippocampal volume and rostral and caudal ACC thickness and surface area (n = 37 with both child hair cortisol and magnetic resonance imaging data; n = 41 with both parent hair cortisol and magnetic resonance imaging data).
resultsHigher hair cortisol concentration was significantly associated with smaller CA3 and dentate gyrus hippocampal subfield volumes but not with CA1 or subiculum volume. Higher hair cortisol was also associated with greater caudal ACC thickness. Hair cortisol significantly mediated associations between parental education level and CA3 and dentate gyrus volumes; lower parental education level was associated with higher hair cortisol, which in turn was associated with smaller volume in these subfields.
conclusionsThese findings point to chronic physiologic stress as a potential mechanism through which lower parental education level leads to reduced hippocampal volume. Hair cortisol concentration may be an informative biomarker leading to more effective prevention and intervention strategies aimed at childhood socioeconomic disadvantage.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.