Extra cash for low-income mothers can affect babies’ brain development: study

New research suggests giving extra cash to low-income mothers can change their infants’ brain development.

Brain measurements at age one showed faster activity in key brain regions in infants whose low-income families received $300-plus monthly for a year, compared with those who got $20 each month, U.S. researchers reported.

The same type of brain activity has been linked in older children to learning skills and other development, although it’s unclear whether the differences found will persist.

The researchers are investigating whether the payments led to better nutrition, less parent stress or other benefits.

The results suggest reducing poverty can directly affect infant brain development, said senior author, Dr. Kimberly Noble, a neuroscience and education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

“The brain changes speak to the remarkable malleability of the brain, especially early in childhood,” she said.

While the researchers can’t rule out that differences seen in total brain activity in both groups were due to chance, they did find meaningful differences in the frontal region, linked with learning and thinking skills. Higher-frequency activity was about 20% greater in infants whose families received the larger payments.

The findings build on evidence that cash support can improve outcomes for older children, said co-author Katherine Magnuson, director of the National Institute for Research on Poverty and Economic Mobility, based at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

It’s also the first rigorous evidence of how the payments may affect children in the early years, she said. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study recruited mothers after childbirth at hospitals in Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, New York City and Omaha. The women reported an average household income of about $20,000 and were randomly assigned to receive $333 or $20 each month. The money was provided by private funders and the recipients could spend it as they wished.