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Abstract
Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with cognitive achievement throughout
life. How does SES relate to brain development, and what are the mechanisms by which
SES might exert its influence? We review studies in which behavioral, electrophysiological
and neuroimaging methods have been used to characterize SES disparities in neurocognitive
function. These studies indicate that SES is an important predictor of neurocognitive
performance, particularly of language and executive function, and that SES differences
are found in neural processing even when performance levels are equal. Implications
for basic cognitive neuroscience and for understanding and ameliorating the problems
related to childhood poverty are discussed.