A recently study from the University of California, Berkeley found differences in brain activation between children from low and high socioeconomic status (‘rich and poor kids’). The researchers used EEG to measure activation in the pre frontal cortex and found children from low socioeconomic backgrounds had a low EEG response which was similar to children with brain injury. The psychology group at Berkeley have a distinguished history of research looking at the development of pre frontal cortex. One of the key findings over the last 20 years is the role that the environment has in brain development. Originally work undertaken on rats showed that those in a drab environment had less well developed brains than those living in stimulating environments. It is likely that poor children have less stimulating environments which in turn affects their brain development. Some of my clinical work is with children who have been abused and neglected and a consistent finding is that they have lower than average intellectual functioning and low academic achievement. This latest study adds to the growing body of research highlighting the importance of early intervention for good brain development.