Neuropsychological Correlates of Childhood Poverty in Nigerian Children: Evidence From Structural and Functional Brain Assessments

This study examines the neuropsychological correlates of childhood poverty through structural and functional brain assessments in Nigerian children, providing the first neuroimaging-informed developmental poverty study in sub-Saharan Africa. While research from high-income countries has linked poverty to differences in brain structure and function, the generalisability of these findings to children growing up in economically constrained but culturally distinct environments in West Africa remains entirely untested. This research recruited 120 children aged 6 to 10 years across three poverty strata from Ibadan, Lagos, and Abuja through stratified household sampling. Structural and functional MRI data were collected at the University of Ibadan Brain Imaging Centre, alongside a comprehensive neuropsychological battery covering executive function, memory, language, and social cognition. Household poverty was operationalised using a multidimensional index incorporating income, housing, food security, and educational access. Voxel-based morphometry and functional connectivity analyses were conducted alongside regression models linking poverty indices to neuropsychological performance. Results indicate that children in the lowest poverty stratum show reduced grey matter volume in prefrontal and hippocampal regions and altered functional connectivity in the default mode network, corroborating findings from high-income country studies. Poverty's effects on language and memory domains were mediated by nutritional status and chronic stress indicators. The study constitutes a landmark neuropsychological contribution to poverty and child development research in Africa. Keywords: neuropsychology, childhood poverty, brain development, Nigeria, MRI.