Richer pupils achieve higher academic grades because their brains are different, according to new research. Past research has shown pupils from low-income backgrounds fare worse than those from wealthier families.Brain scans have now offered another dimension to this so-called "achievement gap" by showing richer pupils have thicker brain cortex in areas associated with visual perception and knowledge accumulation.There is a link between the brain anatomy and performance in standardised education tests.John Gabrieli, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "Just as you would expect, there's a real cost to not living in a supportive environment."We can see it not only in test scores, in educational attainment, but within the brains of these children."To me, it's a call to action. You want to boost the opportunities for those for whom it doesn't come easily in their environment."The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, involved 58 pupils aged 12 or 13, of whom 23 came from poorer backgrounds.Their scores in educational tests were compared with scans of the cortex, the wrinkled outer layer of the brain that is key to functions such as thought, language, sensory perception and motor command.Using magnetic resonance imaging, scientists discovered differences in the thickness of parts of the cortex in the temporal and occipital lobes.Those differences correlated to differences in both test scores and family income. In fact, differences in cortical thickness in these brain regions could explain as much as 44% of the income achievement gap found in this study, scientists said.The differences uncovered may not be permanent as there is "strong evidence that brains are highly plastic", the study found.Martin West, an associate professor of education at Harvard Graduate School, said: "Over the past decade we've been able to identify a growing number of interventions that have managed to have notable impacts on students' academic achievement as measured by standardised tests." ..