Children living in poverty are more likely to have less developed brains, according to a recent study.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis revealed that an alarming 22 percent of children in the United States are living in poverty. They found that living in poverty can have long-lasting negative consequences on brain development, emotional health and academic achievement in children, UPI reported.

"What was already discovered is there is an achievement gap between poor children and middle-class children," Seth Pollak, senior author of the study, told Reuters Health. "Even when they move to better neighborhoods, children growing up in poor families tend to do less well in school than their less poor counterparts."

For the study, researchers looked at brain images and test scores from nearly 400 children and young adults between the ages of 4 and 22 years. They identified changes in the brain's architecture that can lead to lifelong problems with depression, learning difficulties and limitations in the ability to cope with stress.

Luby and her colleagues found that low-income children had irregular brain development and lower standardized test scores, with as much as an estimated 20 percent gap in achievement explained by developmental lags in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

"Early childhood interventions to support a nurturing environment for these children must now become our top public health priority for the good of all," researcher Joan Luby said in a statement.

However, the also found that parents who are nurturing can offset some of the negative effects on brain anatomy seen in poor children. The findings suggest that teaching nurturing skills to parents, especially those who live below the poverty line, may provide a lifetime of benefit for children.

"Our research has shown that the effects of poverty on the developing brain, particularly in the hippocampus, are strongly influenced by parenting and life stresses experienced by the children," Luby said.

The findings are detailed in JAMA Pediatrics.