A new study has found that poorer children tend to have a reduced brain activity.

An important idea to keep in mind is the fact that the brains of low-income kids seem to function differently from the brains of high-income children, according to the study to be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. The difference was measured in the activity of the prefrontal lobe of 9- to 10-year old children. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for problem solving and creativity. Researchers from University of California, Berkeley, have reached to an alarming conclusion: EEG images showed that the brain of poor children resembled that of stroke victims.

The researchers selected a group of 26 children ages 9 and 10: half were from families with low incomes and the rest from families with high incomes. The participants were given simple tasks such as watching a sequence of triangles projected on a screen. The children pressed a button when a tilted triangle appeared on the screen. The researchers measured the kids’ brain activity while they were engaged in that task using an electroencephalograph (EEG). EEG measures the electrical activity produced by the brain as recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp.

The study found kids from lower socio-economic levels have brain psychology patterns similar to those seen in stroke victims.

“It is a similar pattern to what’s seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex,” which controls higher-order thinking and problem solving, says lead researcher Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley. “It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way,” Kishiyama continued.

“Our study is the first with direct measure of brain activity where there is no issue of task complexity,” Mark Kishiyama said. Previous studies have suggested poorer children suffer from less brain stimulation; this affects their ability to plan, pay attention to school and remember details.

Researchers not involved in the study suggest that children need “incredibly intensive interventions to overcome this kind of difficulty.” Brain deficiencies are reversible through programs such as focussed lessons and games that encourage children to think out loud and use executive function.

Poverty and problems associated with poverty such as malnutrition, stress, illiteracy and toxic environments are strong and persistent barriers to childhood development. Studies have shown there are differences in language acquisition between children living in low and middle-income families. Low vaccination coverage among American children living in and near poverty is another problem. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that more than 2 million American children have no health insurance because their parents can’t afford it. About 3 percent of American children are uninsured with an insured parent. The phenomenon is prevalent in families with middle income, with parents earning somewhere between $25,000 and $75,000 a year for a family of four. Additional efforts are needed to expand coverage.

The new study was described as a “wake-up call” about the effects of poverty. Professor Robert Knight, a member of the research team, said that with “proper intervention and training,” improvements could be made.