Human development, inequality, and their associations with brain structure across 29 countries

Medel, Vicente, Alliende, Luz María, Bethlehem, Richard A.I., Seidlitz, Jakob, Ringlein, Grace V., Arango, Celso, Arnatkevičiūtė, Aurina, Asmal, Laila, Bellgrove, Mark, Benegal, Vivek, Bernardo, Miquel, Billeke, Pablo, Bosch-Bayard, Jorge, Bressan, Rodrigo, Busatto, Geraldo F., Castro, Mariana N., Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany, Costanzi, Monise, Czepielewski, Leticia, Dazzan, Paola, de la Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo, Diaz-Caneja, Covadonga M., María Díaz-Zuluaga, Ana, Du Plessis, Stefan, Duran, Fabio L.S., Fittipaldi, Sol, Fornito, Alex, Freimer, Nelson B., Gadelha, Ary, Gama, Clarissa S., Garani, Ranjini, Garcia-Rizo, Clemente, Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia, Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso, Guinjoan, Salvador, Holla, Bharath, Ibañez, Agustín, Ivanovic, Daniza, Jackowski, Andrea Parolin, Leon-Ortiz, Pablo, Lochner, Christine, López-Jaramillo, Carlos, Luckhoff, Hilmar, Massuda, Raffael, McGuire, Philip, Miyata, Jun, Mizrahi, Romina, Murray, Robin, Ozerdem, Aysegul, Pan, Pedro Mario, Parellada, Mara, Phahladira, Lebogang, Ramirez-Mahaluf, Juan Pablo, Reckziegel, Ramiro, Reis Marques, Tiago, Reyes-Madrigal, Francisco, Roos, Annerine, Rosa, Pedro, Salum, Giovanni Abrahão, Scheffler, Freda, Schumann, Gunter, Serpa, Mauricio, Stein, Dan J., Tepper, Angeles, Tiego, Jeggan, Ueno, Tsukasa, Undurraga, Juan, Undurraga, Eduardo A, Valdes-Sosa, Pedro, Valli, Isabel, Villarreal, Mirta, Winton-Brown, Toby T., Yalin, Nefize, Zamorano, Francisco, Zanetti, Marcus V., Winkler, Anderson M., Evans-Lacko, Sara ORCID: 0000-0003-4691-2630 and A. Crossley, Nicolás (2025) Human development, inequality, and their associations with brain structure across 29 countries. European Psychiatry. ISSN 0924-9338 (In Press)

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Abstract

Background: The macro-social and environmental conditions in which people live, such as the level of a country’s development or inequality, are associated with brain-related disorders. However, the relationship between these systemic environmental factors and the brain remains unclear. We here aimed to determine the association between the level of development and inequality of a country and the brain structure of healthy adults. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study pooling brain imaging (T1-based) data from 145 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in 7,962 healthy adults (4,110 women) in 29 different countries. We used a meta-regression approach to relate the brain structure with the country’s level of development and inequality. Results: Higher human development was consistently associated with larger hippocampi and more expanded global cortical surface area, particularly in frontal areas. Increased inequality was most consistently associated with smaller hippocampal volume and thinner cortical thickness across the brain. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the macro-economic conditions of a country are reflected in its inhabitants’ brains and may explain the different incidence of brain disorders across the world. The observed variability of brain structure in health across countries should be considered when developing tools in the field of personalized or precision medicine that are intended to be used across the world.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author
Divisions:	Care Policy and Evaluation Centre
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	01 May 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	01 May 2025 11:30
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128034

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