Several decades of behavioral research have established that variations in socioeconomic status (SES) are related to differences in cognitive performance. Neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques have recently emerged as a method of choice to better understand the neurobiological processes underlying this phenomenon. Here we present a systematic review of a particular sub-domain of this field. Specifically, we used the PICOS approach to review studies investigating potential relationships between SES and scalp event-related brain potentials (ERP). This review found evidence that SES is related to amplitude variations in a diverse range of ERPs: P1, N1, N2, Error-Related Negativities (ERN), N400, auditory evoked potentials, negative difference waves (Nd), P3 and slow waves (SW). These ERPs include early, mid-latency and late potentials that reflect a broad range of cognitive processes (e.g., automatic attentional processes, overt attention, language, executive function, etc.). In this review, all SES effects on ERPs appeared to reflect an impairment or a less efficient form of task-related neural activity for low-SES compared to high-SES individuals. Overall, these results confirm that a wide variety of distinct neural processes with different functional meanings are sensitive to SES differences. The findings of this review also suggest that the relationship between SES and some ERP components may depend on the developmental stage of study participants. Results are further discussed in terms of the current limitations of this field and future avenues of research.

中文翻译：

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社会经济地位与头皮事件相关潜力之间的关系：系统回顾

几十年的行为研究已经证实，社会经济地位（SES）的变化与认知表现的差异有关。神经影像学和心理生理学技术最近已成为更好地理解这种现象背后的神经生物学过程的一种选择方法。在这里，我们对该领域的特定子领域进行了系统回顾。具体来说，我们使用 PICOS 方法回顾了调查 SES 和头皮事件相关脑电位 (ERP) 之间潜在关系的研究。本综述发现证据表明 SES 与多种 ERP 的振幅变化相关：P1、N1、N2、错误相关负性 (ERN)、N400、听觉诱发电位、负差波 (Nd)、P3 和慢波（ SW）。这些 ERP 包括早期、中期潜伏期和晚期电位，反映了广泛的认知过程（例如，自动注意过程、外显注意、语言、执行功能等）。在这篇综述中，所有 SES 对 ERP 的影响似乎都反映了低 SES 个体与高 SES 个体相比，任务相关神经活动的损害或效率较低。总的来说，这些结果证实了具有不同功能意义的各种不同的神经过程对 SES 差异敏感。本次综述的结果还表明，SES 和某些 ERP 组成部分之间的关​​系可能取决于研究参与者的发育阶段。根据该领域当前的局限性和未来的研究途径进一步讨论了结果。