Event-related potentials (ERPs) and other
electroencephalographic (EEG) evidence show that frontal brain areas of higher
and lower socioeconomic status (SES) children are recruited differently during
selective attention tasks. We assessed whether multiple variables related to
self-regulation (perceived mental effort) emotional states (e.g., anxiety,
stress, etc.) and motivational states (e.g., boredom, engagement, etc.) may
co-occur or interact with frontal attentional processing probed in two
matched-samples of fourteen lower-SES and higher-SES adolescents. ERP and EEG
activation were measured during a task probing selective attention to sequences
of tones. Pre- and post-task salivary cortisol and self-reported emotional
states were also measured. At similar behavioural performance level, the
higher-SES group showed a greater ERP differentiation between attended
(relevant) and unattended (irrelevant) tones than the lower-SES group.