Neuroscientific perspectives on poverty

COURTNEY, S.; PAKULAK, E.; SEGRETIN, M.S.; LIPINA, S.J.

International School on Mind, Brain and Education (Ettore Majorana Foundation and Center for Scientific Culture)

Lugar: Erice; Año: 2020 p. 358

978-987-86-6736-2

Over the last two decades, research in the field of poverty has begun to provide evidence that advances our understanding of how early adversity modulates brain development. When such evidence is used in the other disciplinary contexts, at times early brain development is claimed to predict adaptive behaviors and economic productivity during adult life, or such achievements are claimed to be impossible in some due to the supposed immutability of the long-term negative impacts of child poverty. Such statements have not only scientific but also political implications and therefor need to be examined in light of the available evidence. This is particularly important because such statements may lead to misconceptions and over-generalizations that in turn have the potential to affect investments in, as well the design, implementation, and evaluation of, programs targeting early childhood development. This book seeks to reduce such misconceptions and over-generalizations. The different chapters, written by prominent researchers in the cognitive neuroscientific study of poverty, provide evidence that leads to new hypotheses and reflections concerning the primary questions in the field of poverty studies from the neuroscientific perspective.