The most powerful factors affecting a child's brain development involve socioeconomic opportunities, according to a study in the journal Science.

The analysis of more than 2,300 9- and 10-year-olds found that environmental factors ranging from household income to education to neighborhood quality are associated with brain differences that can clearly be seen in MRI scans.

The researchers also found that preteens who'd grown up in neighborhoods with lower incomes and limited social support had brain differences associated with less sleep and more stress.

"Something is going on in these neighborhoods," says Scott Marek, the study's first author and an assistant professor of radiology at WashU School of Medicine. "We need to find out how socioeconomics is becoming biologically embedded."

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/11/nx-s1-5849937/child-brain-development-stress-sleep-neighborhood-economics