We’re proud to spotlight PNA postdoctoral trainee Dr. Meredith Phillips, whose newest paper, “Objective, Relative, and Subjective Measures of Socioeconomic Status and White Matter Hyperintensities: A Cross-sectional Analysis in Midlife Adults,” was just published in Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine (July 31, 2026). Meredith co-authored the study with several authors including eBrain’s Dr. Beth Shaaban and Dr. Andrea Rosso.
What the study found: Using high-resolution 7T MRI data from 189 participants (ages 28–56) in the Neurobiology of Adult Health (NOAH) Project, Meredith and her co-authors asked whether the way we measure socioeconomic status (SES) matters for brain health, specifically, for white matter hyperintensities (WMH), a marker linked to poorer brain health outcomes.
Why it matters: The findings suggest that how people feel about their socioeconomic position may capture something about brain health that income numbers alone miss (and that this relationship may look different for women than for men). It’s a great example of why measuring SES thoughtfully, and considering sex differences, matters for understanding neurocognitive risk.
Nice work, Meredith- we’re excited to see where this line of research goes next!
Read the full abstract here.
