It is not only bigger trust funds that the children of the wealthy inherit — it could be bigger brains too.
A study has found that every pound extra that a child’s parents earn translates, on average, into a corresponding increase in the brain’s surface area.
The researchers said that the parts of the brain associated with language and higher functions were disproportionately affected.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the brains of more than 1,000 American children aged between three and 20 were analysed and compared with other factors such as parental education and income.
The scientists found that income was related to average brain surface area. The effect of extra earnings made the most difference among the poorest and