Open AccessPathway to neural resilience: Self‐esteem buffers against deleterious effects of poverty on the hippocampus
Author(s) -
Wang Yinan,
Zhang Lin,
Kong Xiangzhen,
Hong Yingyi,
Cheon Bobby,
Liu Jia
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.23273
Subject(s) - hippocampal formation , psychology , atrophy , sss* , hippocampus , poverty , neuroimaging , neuroscience , brain size , socioeconomic status , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , environmental health , economics , radiology , economic growth , population
Abstract Human neuroimaging studies have shown that people living in poverty tend to suffer hippocampal atrophy, which leads to impaired memory and learning throughout life. However, behavioral studies demonstrate that poor people with high self‐esteem are often exempt from the deleterious effect of poverty and instead possess a happy and successful life. Here we investigated whether high self‐esteem can buffer against the deleterious effects of poverty, as indicated by low subjective socioeconomic status (SSS), on the hippocampal gray matter volume (GMV) in a large cohort of young participants ( N = 280). As expected, findings revealed that although low (vs. high) SSS was linked with a smaller hippocampal GMV, the deleterious effect of low SSS on hippocampal GMV was alleviated when the participants have high self‐esteem. Commonality analyses further confirmed this observation. The current study suggests that positive psychological resources such as self‐esteem may provide protection for the hippocampal atrophy in adversity. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3757–3766, 2016 . © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .