Latin American Perspectives in the Study of Childhood and Adolescence Poverty Through the Lenses of Neural Sciences

Abstract

Neuroscientific research on childhood poverty provides evidence that contributes to advancing the understanding of how it impacts neural development. Such evidence has been used as a predictor of either adaptive behaviors and/or economic productivity during adult life or of the impossibility of such achievements due to assumptions of immutability of the long-term negative impacts of poverty on brain development. The latter type of statements need to be considered adequately in light of the available evidence, as they could lead to misconceptions and overgeneralizations. This chapter addresses two aspects that we consider essential for these aims: (1) a critical consideration of how the categories of childhood and development are being used in Latin America; and (2) a synthesis of the neuroscientific evidence from poverty studies at global level and its implications in the conceptualization of the categories of childhood and development in socioeconomic adverse circumstances for the Latin America region.