An American study that included providing cash assistance to low-income mothers in the first year of their children's life showed changes in children's brain activity that were associated with their cognitive development.

In a report published by the American newspaper "New York Times", author Jason DeBarley says that the evidence that one year of benefits for poor mothers can affect a child's brain function highlights the role that money may play in developing his cognitive skills.

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University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist Martha J. Farah, who conducted a review of the study for the recently published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says, “This major scientific discovery shows that simply giving families more money, even a modest amount, than It will contribute to the development of the child's brain functions better.

Researcher Charles Nelson III of Harvard University points out that the effect of the financial aid will not be apparent until after children take cognitive tests.

Although the brain patterns documented in the study are often associated with higher cognitive skills, this is not always the case.

"This study is potentially groundbreaking," Dr. Nelson adds. "If I were the policymakers, I would have paid attention to the results. But it's too early to pass a law that would give every family $300 a month."

And last January saw the end of the temporary federal program of near-universal child benefits - up to $300 per month for each child in America - as US President Joe Biden was unable to unite Democrats on a social bill that would have extended it.

Most Republicans also oppose monthly grants because of their cost and fear of discouraging parents from working.

Giving families more money, even a modest amount, would contribute to the development of better brain function (Getty Images)

 Baby's first year project

In the research project 'Child's First Year', payments were made regardless of whether the parents worked or not.

There is ample evidence that, on average, poor children start school with poorer cognitive skills, and neuroscientists have shown that the differences extend to brain structure and function.

But it wasn't clear if these differences were a direct result of a lack of funds or related factors such as parental education or surrounding influences.

According to Dr. Kimberly G. Noble, a physician and neuroscientist at Teachers College at Columbia University, the study she helped lead is "the first study to show that money, by itself, has an effect on brain development."

For the study, Dr. Noble and colleagues from 6 universities recruited 1,000 pairs of mothers and infants within days of birth, and randomly assigned families into two groups.

One group received $333, and the other group received only $20.

Using electroencephalography to assess the one-year-olds, the researchers found that the brain activity of the children in the first group was significantly faster than in the children in the second group.

Statistically significant differences were noticeable on most of the scales, and more pronounced in the parts of the brain most associated with cognitive progression.

Payments under this study will continue until the children are at least 4 years old, and the researchers plan to conduct further testing.

Researchers are still studying how money affects a child's brain development;

This may be due to buying better food and providing better health care, reducing parental stress, or allowing mothers to work fewer hours and spend more time with their children.

University of California, Irvine economist Greg Duncan, one of the study's nine co-authors, hopes the research will redirect the discussion toward "whether payments are good for children", rather than worrying about "the possibility of parents leaving their jobs or misusing the money".

Cash assistance to poor mothers enables them to buy better food and provide better health care for their children (Getty Images)

Children of poor families

Studies of poor children have long been dominated by economists and psychologists, but neuroscientists have had their say, too.

Over the past 15 years, they have shown that poor children differ from others in terms of brain structure and function, with greater disparities between the poorest children.

EEG tests revealed differences in electrical activity, while MRI showed differences in the size of the cerebral cortex, particularly in areas associated with language development and executive function.

One study found that differences in the size of the cerebral cortex account for approximately 44% of the achievement gap between adolescents from high-income families and those from low-income families.

Effects of cash assistance

As with any social difference, many other factors influence cognitive development.

The Child's Year One study has raised more than $20 million from public and private sources to test the effects of cash assistance.

The researchers randomly assigned participants from birth centers in New York, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and metropolitan areas of New Orleans and Omaha, to groups with high and low cash assistance.

The median household income in America was about $20,000, well below the official poverty line for a medium-sized family, which means that those who earned $333 a month achieved an income gain of about 20%.

The researchers expected that children in the high-frequency cash aid group would show more high-frequency brain activity than children in the placebo group and less low-frequency brain activity.

Previous research has found that these patterns are associated with higher cognitive skills and fewer attention problems.

The results are largely in line with the researchers' expectations.

Scientists wrote that the financial aid causes a change in brain patterns, and Dr. Noble stated that this evidence is strong but not sufficient, in part due to the Corona virus pandemic that has allowed them to test only 435 infants.

Just one year's help shows how sensitive the brain is to conditions, says neuroscientist John Gabrielli (Getty)

 Improve cognitive abilities

John Gabrielli, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes the evidence for how cash aids alter brain activity is compelling and "scientifically significant," noting the need to see how much these differences can improve cognitive abilities.

Catherine Magnuson, a co-author on the study who directs the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Poverty Research, admits she was surprised by what just one year's aid did, noting that it "shows how vulnerable the brain is to conditions."

Critics of the unconditional cash aid warn that families will waste it or misuse it.

But Lisa Genetian, an economist at Duke University and co-author of the study, says the findings suggest that parents can be trusted to make good decisions: "This assistance will cover food expenses for one family, while it may cover housing costs for another."

Additional research will examine how parents spend money.