It is a commonly held belief that wealthy children have an advantage over children that come from a poor background.  A combination of social and environmental factors are believed to contribute to the future success of wealthy children, from better schools, to a support system that encourages achievement, to connections with people of high influence.

Now a new study shows that the relationship between childhood poverty and lack of achievement is even deeper than originally thought.  According to this study, childhood poverty results in physical changes to the brain that negatively impacts one’s chance of being successful.

The study, published online in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, suggests that certain brain functions of some 9- and 10-year-olds are much weaker than those of wealthy children.  The difference is believed to be so stark that the negative impact of childhood poverty on children’s brains can almost be compared to that of a stroke.

The area of the brain impacted by childhood poverty controls higher-order thinking and problem solving which are critical abilities for a successful adulthood.  Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley explains it this way:

“It is a similar pattern to what’s seen in patients with strokes that led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex.  It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way.”

As reported in the USA Today, research has shown that the neural systems of poor children develop differently from those of middle-class children, affecting language development and “executive function,” or the ability to plan, remember details and pay attention in school.

Differences in language acquisition between low- and middle-income children has been studied extensively, with the most famous study showing that by the age 3, middle-class children had a vocabulary roughly twice the size of poor children’s.

The good news is that the effect of poverty can be reversed.  But according to Susan Neuman, an education professor at the University of Michigan, children need “incredibly intensive intervention to overcome this kind of difficulty.”

But despite of the difficulties reported by these experts, there are many people that have come from poor backgrounds that have been able to overcome their childhood challenges and achieve success.  In America – the land of opportunities – it is widely believed that anyone, regardless of background, can rise to the top.

Regardless of what this study may show, there are other factors in the success equation, such as persistence, determination, and the ability to overcome adversity that may outweigh the negative impact childhood poverty has on success.