Income is associated with hippocampal/amygdala and education with cingulate cortex grey matter volume

Income and education are both elements of a person’s socioeconomic status, which is predictive of a broad range of life outcomes. The brain’s gray matter volume (GMV) is influenced by socioeconomic status and mediators related to an unhealthy life style. We here investigated two independent general population samples comprising 2838 participants (all investigated with the same MRI-scanner) with regard to the association of indicators of the socioeconomic status and gray matter volume. Voxel-based morphometry without prior hypotheses revealed that years of education were positively associated with GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex and net-equivalent income with gray matter volume in the hippocampus/amygdala region. Analyses of possible mediators (alcohol, cigarettes, body mass index (BMI), stress) revealed that the relationship between income and GMV in the hippocampus/amygdala region was partly mediated by self-reported stressors, and the association of years of education with GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex by BMI. These results corrected for whole brain effects (and therefore not restricted to certain brain areas) do now offer possibilities for more detailed hypotheses-driven approaches.