Association of socio-economic status and perceived parental stress effects with infant cortical development

Environmental factors such as socio-economic status (SES) and parental stress have significant impacts on cognitive performance, but their links to brain development during infancy are not known. We collected high-resolution structural MRI, SES and perceived stress scales (PSS) of 70 infants and their caregivers aged 0-20 months to investigate the association of these environmental factors and brain development. The total brain, gray matter, and white matter volumes all increase rapidly with age. Higher SES is significantly correlated with greater cortical volume, particularly in the right hemisphere. Lower PSS tends to be associated with higher cortical volume, though not significantly.