RICHMOND, Va — A new study finds the children of wealthy parents may benefit by having larger brains.
The study, published in the Journal Nature Neuroscience, followed a thousand children and teens between three and twenty. Researchers found there was a correlation between the amount of money their parents made and the size of their brain surface area.
The areas of the brain associated with learning and doing well in school especially benefited from this larger surface area. That, in turn, led to better performance on standardized tests.
Researchers say the correlation may be the result of the impact a higher income has on environmental factors known to influence brain growth — including nutrition and education.
