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鈥淚 want to share an idea with you,鈥� Kimberly Noble tells a rapt audience in . 鈥淲hat if we tried to help young children in poverty by simply giving their families more money?鈥�

Noble, Associate Professor of Neuroscience & Education at Teachers College, is by no means the first person to suggest income supplements as social policy. But she comes at the issue from a unique vantage point, and may soon be in a position to speak with unparalleled authority.

Four years ago, Noble, who heads 911爆料网鈥檚 Neurocognition, Early Experience & Development () Lab, made international news with  that found that in children ages three and older, higher parental education and family income were associated with larger surface area of numerous brain regions, including those implicated in language and executive functions. 

Does income level actually have a causative effect on brain development? In May of 2018, Noble and colleagues at the University of California-Irvine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University set out to test that notion, launching an multi-year study in which 1,000 low-income mothers, randomly selected following the arrival of their newborns in maternity wards in four U.S. cities, are given either a monthly debit card gift of $333 or a $20 monthly debit card gift. The researchers will comprehensively test the children鈥檚 cognitive and brain development when the children reach 36 months.

Differences in children鈥檚 brain structure don鈥檛 [have to] doom a child to a lifetime of low achievement. The brain is not destiny.

鈥擪imberly Noble

In her earlier study, 鈥渄ollar for dollar, relatively small difference in family income were associated with proportionately greater differences in brain structure among the most disadvantaged families,鈥� Noble says in her TED Talk. 鈥淎nd intuitively that makes sense, right? An extra $20,000 for a family earning, say $150,000 a year would certainly be nice, but probably not game changing. Whereas an extra $20,000 for a family only earning $20,000 would likely make a remarkable difference in their daily lives.鈥�

And, her hypothesis goes, in their children鈥檚 brains. In her TED Talk, Noble poses two hypothetical newborns, one born to poverty, the other to more fortunate circumstances. At birth, there is 鈥渁bsolutely no difference in how their brains work.鈥� But by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten, the child living in poverty will have cognitive scores, that according to national averages, will be 60 percent lower. In high school, that same child will be five times more likely to drop out; and as a young adult, significantly less likely to earn a college degree.

鈥淏y the time these two kids are 35 years old, if the first child spent her entire childhood living in poverty, she is up to 75 times more likely to be poor herself,鈥� Noble says.

But, she adds, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 have to be that way.鈥�

鈥淎s a neuroscientist, one of the things I find most exciting about the human brain is that our experiences change our brains,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his concept, known as neuroplasticity, means that these differences in children鈥檚 brain structure don鈥檛 doom a child to a lifetime of low achievement. The brain is not destiny.鈥�

I would argue school is important, but if we鈥檙e focusing all of our policy efforts on formal schooling, we鈥檙e probably starting too late.

鈥擪imberly Noble

Interventions to change experience (and thus brain structure) can 鈥� and should 鈥� be made at many points in young people鈥檚 lives. High-quality, science-based education is certainly one important venue for doing so 鈥� 鈥渂ut as any intervention scientist doing this work would tell you,鈥� education practices of this kind are often labor-intensive and costly. 鈥淪o I would argue school is important, but if we鈥檙e focusing all of our policy efforts on formal schooling, we鈥檙e probably starting too late.鈥�

Another promising area of intervention is to promote more language use and more conversation in the home 鈥� but that, too, can be labor intensive, and 鈥渋t can be somewhat patronizing for scientists to swoop in and tell a family what they need to change in order for their child to succeed.鈥�

It will be several years before there are definitive results from 鈥淏aby鈥檚 First Years.鈥�  If nothing else, Noble says, 鈥渁 thousand newborns and their moms will have a bit more cash each month that they tell us they very much need.鈥�

But if the study鈥檚 hypothesis proves correct, Noble鈥檚 hope is that the results 鈥渨ill inform debate about social services that have the potential to affect millions of families with young children.

鈥淏ecause while income may not be the only or even the most important factor in determining children鈥檚 brain development, it may be the one that, from a policy perspective, can be easily addressed,鈥� Noble says. 鈥淧ut simply: if we can show that reducing poverty changes how children鈥榮 brains develop and that leads to meaningful policy change, then a young child born into poverty today might have a much better shot at a brighter future.鈥�