Are poor people to blame for their poverty or are they victims of social injustice and economic inequality? New findings in neuroscience show that growing up in poverty can affect emotionality, character and decision-making even before a person learns to take responsibility for his life.
"Poverty is not a lack of character, but a lack of money" - with these words, the young historian and thinker Rutger Bregman began his lecture at TED on the need for an unconditional basic income system. Meanwhile, inequality is a natural hierarchical state of human society, which is divided into layers or classes according to certain characteristics that change from era to era and from culture to culture. From which group a person belongs, depends on his access to life resources in the broadest sense of the word - from education to water and even air.
Widespread social and material inequality, combined with theories of self-regulation of the economy, gave rise to the opinion that the main blame for poverty lies with the poor themselves, who do not know how to work, make bad decisions, are prone to vices and laziness.
It was this neo-liberal moralistic idea that was presented by the "iron lady" Margaret Thatcher, stating in an interview that poverty is a lack of character.
Whether she was right, argue supporters of the liberal state, which is aloof from interfering in the economy, and socialism, in which the government manages economic processes to maintain social justice (the degree of its participation may vary). Today, however, Thatcher's statement takes on a new meaning in connection with the revolutionary discoveries in the field of the laws of the brain, made over the past two decades.
It is becoming increasingly clear that poverty is indeed a character flaw.
There is a vicious circle: poverty leads to the appearance of such disadvantages, disrupting the brain. And a person with altered character traits, in turn, begins to make bad decisions and lead an unreasonable lifestyle, aggravating his own poverty. It was these discoveries that sparked interest in the idea of a universal basic income—the redistribution of the (super)profits of the rich to those who receive too little. And now this interest is cautiously shown not only by supporters of socialist doctrines, but also by conservatives. Such proposals are being seriously discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in India the project is already being implemented in a “compromise” version with the issuance of loans, and experts see it as a potential for economic growth and reducing inequality.
What is meant by poverty?
The threshold of absolute poverty is set formally, "from above": the World Bank names the amount - about $ 2 a day, on which you can "support life". This is a very arbitrary cut-off, it helps to determine the number of extremely poor and destitute in the world, but what about those who survive being a little above this border? In fact, you can hardly call a rich person who spends no more than $ 3 a day. This calculation does not take into account the level of inequality, so there is another method - the calculation of relative poverty, defined as the inaccessibility for someone of the benefits available to other members of society. This approach is also called "deprivation", because such a person is in deprivation relative to more affluent people
The threshold of absolute poverty is set formally, "from above": the World Bank names the amount - about $ 2 a day, on which you can "support life". This is a very arbitrary cut-off, it helps to determine the number of extremely poor and destitute in the world, but what about those who survive being a little above this border? In fact, you can hardly call a rich person who spends no more than $ 3 a day. This calculation does not take into account the level of inequality, so there is another method - the calculation of relative poverty, defined as the inaccessibility for someone of the benefits available to other members of society. This approach is also called "deprivation", because such a person is in deprivation relative to more affluent people.
We need to use the second definition of poverty, understood as the inconsistency of life and consumption with the accepted standard in society, in order to understand how it affects the brain, because in this case, instead of dry and rather arbitrary figures, we get a clearer and more realistic picture.
Relative poverty in highly developed economies can look harmless, like the inaccessibility of travel or a prestigious education, with the availability of a decent food basket and even some excess clothing.
In developing countries, for example, water can become a scarce resource for the poor, as is the case on the African continent. But there is also something that makes all people in the zone of deprivation in common in any economy - a sense of their own isolation.
Imagine that you are walking through a hypermarket. A clean tiled floor, glass-fronted refrigerators, shelves full of biscuits and cheeses, fluorescent lights brightly illuminating oranges and apples—nothing out of the ordinary, right?
Now imagine that a kilogram of apples costs 500 dollars, oranges - 600 dollars, and a piece of cheese weighing 300 grams can be bought for about 450. In general, even worse than at the airport - and there are no other prices for kilometers around, and the salary you are still the same. You begin to look at food differently and think not about the taste of the products, but about the fact that you cannot afford them. Each new shelf makes you feel hungry, and each new price tag makes you give up your desire.
And that's just lunch. What about rent? Buying new shoes to replace the only pair that has already worn out? Maybe you owe someone? If you've tried hard enough, you've just experienced stress through your own imagination. So, poverty is, first of all, constant, uncontrollable stress.
How does stress affect the body and brain?
Stress is a universal model for activating the body in general and the brain in particular. Escaping from a sudden danger or, having made superhuman efforts, pass a session, gain additional work in order to save up for a trip, or squeeze a record 80 kg off your chest - all these achievements are impossible without stress activation. It is launched by any attempt to adapt to new conditions, and a change in the nervous organization can serve as an indicator of successful adaptation. This restructuring involves immunity, metabolism, hormones and brain neurotransmitters.
Stress hormone.
Stress activates the limbic system, which triggers the release of special hormones, primarily cortisol secreted by the adrenal glands, which is part of the glucocorticoid group. It increases blood pressure and blood glucose levels, this is due to the need for enhanced cell nutrition. The breakdown of proteins is accelerated (to quickly get the necessary “food”) and the synthesis of fat (to make reserves while there is something to store). Sensitivity to sex hormones under the influence of glucocorticoids decreases: stress “extinguishes” libido, since the moment of the struggle for life is clearly not the best time for reproduction
Changing how genes work..
Glucocorticoids have such powerful effects on the body that they can change the way genes work. Genetic information is inherited and “for life”, unless you have edited your own gene set using modern technology. However, nature has its own way of "programming" - epigenetic. By placing special chemical labels on DNA molecules, the body can make serious changes in the way genes work, for example, mimic the absence of gene information. In this case, he, figuratively speaking, hangs the label "Not for reading." So, glucocorticoids just have the ability to place such labels. This means that periods of stress change the genetic instructions by which the body develops, rebuilds and functions. Depending on the conditions, gene expression is transformed in different ways, but it is clear that both acute and chronic stress physically changes our body and brain.
Changing the way the brain works.
There are several main areas associated with stress response in the brain.
For the first time, sensitivity to glucocorticoids was found in the hippocampus, a department largely responsible for cognitive functions and memory. Under the influence of stress, cells are destroyed here - while learning increases the hippocampus even in adults and the elderly.
In the median area of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning, cognition, control of actions and emotions, and generally conscious behavior, under the influence of glucocorticoids, neural connections are reduced. This leads to rigidity of cognitive abilities: flexibility is good only in calm times, and in a stressful situation, clarity and unambiguity of thinking are important. At the same time, in the orbitofrontal zone of the cortex, the number of connections increases. This area is not very well understood, but it is now believed to be responsible for adaptive learning and the ability to motivate, and the increase in the number of connections in it may be due to the need to remain vigilant and quickly get used to new reward mechanisms.
The amygdala, part of the limbic system that forms emotions, works very intensively under stress, and if a person stays in this state for a long time, it practically does not leave the active mode at all. This is associated with increased anxiety in particular and emotional reactivity in general.
Danger of prolonged stress.
The brain's stress response mechanism is well adapted to sudden and rapid changes: it allows the body to activate for the most effective implementation of the "fight or flight" strategy. However, this mechanism does not work in a situation of constant prolonged stress. After all, it was formed at a time when the main stress factors were crop failure and predator attacks. Our ancestors could survive these momentary hardships and return to their normal state.
A cruel joke with modern man is played by the ability of our body to maintain homeostasis even in the wildest conditions: when stress goes on and on and on, the body does not break down - it is completely rebuilt to ensure balance.
Temporary limitation of cognitive functions, anxiety and impulsiveness, necessary for survival at the moment of danger, become the daily norm of life.
The high level of uncontrollable stress due to all these changes correlates with poor health and increased mortality.
The impact of poverty on brain development in childhood
The most vulnerable group of people are children. And if we talk about poverty, then they are doubly vulnerable: human babies are forced to be born with an unformed brain. It can be compared to open source, which users customize for themselves. The environment, the emotional state and the nature of the speech of people around, eating habits, a variety of toys - all this affects the structure and functioning of the brain of a future adult. Not only genetics determines the features of the development of this most complex organ, but also environmental factors: toxic substances, a diet poor in essential nutrients, the use of drugs and drugs by parents, social deprivation and domestic violence. All these signs are characteristic to a greater extent of life below the poverty line and near it. In addition to these, there are other stressors: the hard work of parents or their frequent change of jobs, regular food shortages, limited access to essential medicines, unemployment and homelessness.
In neuroscience, the concept of a "depleted environment" is used, in which the development of the brain is hindered due to a lack of stimuli. The cramped space, the lack of a variety of toys and outdoor games turned out to be factors that thin the neural layer of the brain. This means that in a depleted environment, nerve cells grow worse and form new connections, while old ones are destroyed more actively than under normal conditions.
To maximize the development of a child's brain potential, not only an enriched physical environment is very important, but also communication with significant adults. After all, speech and language are the most important factor in the formation of higher mental functions.
The study showed that by the age of 4, a child from a highly educated family hears an average of 45 million words, from a working family - 26 million, and from a living on welfare - only 13 million.
According to data obtained by American scientists, the brain size of family members with an income of 1.5 minimum norms is 3-4% less, and for children living below the poverty line, this gap reaches 10%. The difficult financial situation affects the frontal lobe, which controls attention, regulation of emotions and learning processes, the temporal zone, which is important for the development of speech, and the hippocampus, which allows you to process and remember information. Approximately 20% of the responsibility for the poor academic performance of children from poor and destitute families, researchers place only on the environment that slows down the maturation of the brain.
The stressful state of the mother affects the brain of the baby in the womb. Such children at the molecular level lose the mechanisms of self-control, and as they grow up, they become more impulsive and prone to bad habits and nervous breakdowns than their peers. Long-term observations have shown that adults whose childhood was spent in poverty and destitution also have increased activity of the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex, on the contrary, is “underdeveloped” - even if now their financial situation has improved. This means that they are still too impulsive, anxious about every little thing, overreacting to stress, and their cognitive strategies are not flexible enough.
Often people from poor families find it more difficult to control their emotions - as well as those who suffer from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic disorders.
The harmonious development of the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system plays a key role in decision making, goal setting and the ability to achieve them, the formation of self-control skills - that is, in the development of precisely those qualities that we associate with social success and economic well-being. In the text about “dopanomics”, we have already explained in detail how these zones interact and what participation they take in the above psycho-emotional and cognitive processes, which not only train the brain, but also form the so-called internal locus of control in us. This is a psychological property of a person when a person takes responsibility for his life. People who grow up under stress and constantly feeling helpless develop an external locus of control - a worldview in which they have no influence on their lives and tend to delegate responsibility for it to others or to external circumstances.
The impact of poverty on the quality of life in old age.
The natural aging of the body does not necessarily entail a deterioration in cognitive functions. Today, we cannot fight old age as an oxidative process, but we can improve the quality of life of older people many times over. The most important factors for brain health at this age are good blood circulation and a balanced diet. However, in addition to them, the so-called cognitive reserve is of great importance - the sum of the intellectual work of the brain.
Self-education, mastering new skills, in general, any intellectual activity - the more we load the brain with such work, the more active and “younger” it is.
And the more active it is, the better it compensates for cell losses caused by age-related changes. Social ties are also a very important component of this brain capital: in older people who have friends and spend leisure time in society, cognitive functions do not deteriorate (or, in any case, deteriorate much more slowly), the brain substance retains a fairly high density, and they take more effective decisions than their single peers.
It is obvious that old people living in poverty have no access to social leisure, good nutrition, amateur sports activities, or self-education, because they are isolated from society, fenced off by a glass wall of material distress and have problems meeting even basic needs and receiving medical care. Their brains, under the influence of constant stress, and not old age, function much worse than they could.
Remember your surprise when you look at a group of ninety-year-old tourists from German boarding houses: they move, look differently, interest and understanding are read in their eyes - all because the income allows them to load the brain and nourish the body.
Poverty is not only stress.
Low-income people lose up to 14 IQ points when they need to solve problems after contemplating the need for a serious financial outlay. Experiments conducted by Indian scientists show that the same person thinks differently in times of poverty and wealth. The intellectual ability of farmers who almost starve until the harvest season, and then en masse make a solid profit, was tested at two points - a financial high and a low. It turned out that, having difficulties with money, they solve problems worse, including those related to planning. The researchers emphasize that it’s not so much stress itself, but that the head of a person in need is loaded with a huge number of small calculations: where to shrink, where to save, etc. This assumes that there is some gross brain bandwidth - and it is limited. Therefore, the more worries, the worse the higher mental functions work.
For a poor person, this cognitive overload can make it difficult not only to plan financial behavior, get an education, and think strategically—but also to raise their children to shape their brains in defiance of the patterns of poverty. But for wealthy parents, on the contrary, all this will seem easy: ask leading questions, involve the child in decision making, listen to his desires, allow him to explore and fill up mom and dad with endless “how?”, “why?”, “why?” , teach impulse control in exchange for long-term rewards. But science shows that financial hardship can physically deprive us of the ability to do what is right and wise. Thus, generational poverty reproduces itself at the level of brain structure and epigenetic features
Our brain is plastic: the environment influences it not only in childhood, but throughout life, although not so intensively.
A person who grew up in poverty is able to change the way their brain works with the help of neuromanagement and learning - but this is very difficult to achieve without transforming the environment around them, without making it more friendly, full of possibilities and stimulating to knowledge.
And if brain training is in the zone of personal responsibility, then changing the environment and eliminating colossal inequalities is, of course, a collective task. In connection with discoveries in the field of neuroplasticity, today it should be considered not in the context of charity, but from the point of view of social necessity and the common good
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