Twenty percent (one in five children) in the US live in poverty. Poverty exposes children to many physical and psychosocial stressors which directly affect brain development, maturation, and adaptation in response to the environment. These stressors are not limited to but include: lack of food security (resulting in malnutrition); substandard living conditions which pose health risks (noise and air pollution, overcrowding and poor sanitation) in unsafe neighborhoods, and exposure to environmental toxins like lead and asbestos. Low income children, both rural and urban, are at an increased risk for experiencing psychological stressors such as: family turmoil, early childhood separation, physical and psychological abuse and trauma when compared to immigrant children and adults. Over time and in combination, these psychological, psychosocial, and environmental stressors have significant effects on brain development and brain function. This senior seminar will systematically examine these poverty-related stressors and their effects on neurobiology. It will also examine factors that ameliorate these stressors and their neurobiological consequences. Students will be required to read, analyze, and discuss primary resources both orally and in writing, and produce an APA style literature review thesis paper. Offered every third semester.