Poverty hurts early brain development. Giving families cash can help.

SectionstvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC NewsSupporting low-income families with cash could protect infants from the deleterious effects poverty has on brain development, research published Monday finds. The preliminary results from an ongoing clinical trial found that infants whose families received an extra $4,000 in annual income were more likely to show brain activity patterns associated with the development of thinking and learning. Ludwig professor of child psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said that brain development does not happen evenly across a lifespan.Neuroscientists are beginning to home in on specific periods of time, particularly in early childhood, in which brain development happens rapidly, said Luby, who was not involved with the new study. You can’t just think of it as the adults who are or are not getting the money, we have to take a child-focused lens to how we think about supporting families,” she said.According to Dr. Martha Farah, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society, who was not involved with the research, the initial results already illustrate subtle differences in brain activity that indicate differences in cognitive and emotional development.“The most important findings will come in the future, when the kids are grown enough to show everyone their cognitive and linguistic abilities, their self-control and other important achievements of early development,” she said.