brain sciences Article Family Income Mediates the Effect of Parental Education on Adolescents’ Hippocampus Activation During an N-Back Memory Task Shervin Assari 1,* , Shanika Boyce 2, Mohsen Bazargan 1,3 and Cleopatra H. Caldwell 4,5 1 Department of Family Medicine, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA;
[email protected] 2 Department of Pediatrics, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA;
[email protected] 3 Department of Family Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA 4 Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA;
[email protected] 5 Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health (CRECH), School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-734-232-0445; Fax: +1-734-615-8739 Received: 30 June 2020; Accepted: 3 August 2020; Published: 5 August 2020 Abstract: Introduction: Hippocampus, a medial temporal lobe structure, has significant implications in memory formation and learning. Although hippocampus activity is believed to be affected by socioeconomic status (SES), limited knowledge exists on which SES indicators influence hippocampus function. Purpose: This study explored the separate and combined effects of three SES indicators, namely parental education, family income, and neighborhood income, on adolescents’ hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task. As some of the effects of parental education may be through income, we also tested if the effect of parental education on hippocampus activation during our N-Back memory task is mediated by family or neighborhood income.