Obesity in children is associated with differences in brain structure in regions linked to cognitive control compared to the brains of children who are normal weight, according to new research from the 探花直播 of Cambridge.
Obesity in children is associated with differences in brain structure in regions linked to cognitive control compared to the brains of children who are normal weight, according to new research from the 探花直播 of Cambridge.
探花直播links that we observed suggest that there are very real structural brain and cognitive differences in children who are obese
Paul Fletcher
However, the scientists who led the study stress that it is not possible to say whether obesity causes these brain changes or whether the children are obese because their brain structures are different.
Around 124 million children worldwide are thought to be obese. In the UK, almost one in five children are overweight or obese when they start primary school and this figure increases to one in three by the time they begin secondary school.听Children who are overweight or obese are more likely to become obese adults, and have an increased risk of poorer health outcomes in later life including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Previous studies have linked being overweight with scoring lower on various measures of executive function, an umbrella term for several functions such as self-control, decision making, working memory (temporarily holding information for processing) and response to rewards. Broadly speaking, executive function refers to a set of processes that enable planning, problem solving, flexible reasoning and regulation of behaviours and emotions.
To examine if this link existed in children, researchers at the 探花直播 of Cambridge and Yale 探花直播 analysed data from 2,700 children between the ages of 9-11 years who had been recruited as part of the National Institutes of Health Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development听(NIH ABCD) Study. 探花直播results of their study are published today in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
In particular, the researchers looked at the thickness of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain 鈥 our so-called 鈥榞rey matter鈥 鈥 and compared it to each child鈥檚 body mass index (BMI). They also analysed results from tests of executive function.
探花直播team found an association between increased BMI and significant reductions in the average (mean) thickness of the cortex, as well as thinning in the pre-frontal region of the cortex, an area associated with cognitive control. This relationship remained after accounting for factors including age, sex, race, parental education, household income and birth-weight.
Image:听 探花直播brain areas highlighted in blue represent regions where cortical thickness is related to BMI. 探花直播lighter the blue, the more pronounced the relationship 鈥 in other words, the thinner the cortex is in children with a higher BMI. (Credit: Lisa Ronan, 探花直播 of Cambridge)
探花直播researchers also found that increased BMI was associated with poorer performance at tests to measure executive function.
鈥淲e saw very clear differences in brain structure between children who were obese and children who were a healthy weight,鈥 says the study鈥檚 first author Dr Lisa Ronan from the Department of Psychiatry at the 探花直播 of Cambridge.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to stress that the data does not show changes over time, so we cannot say whether being obese has changed the structure of these children鈥檚 brain or whether innate differences in their brains lead them to become obese.鈥
探花直播NIH ABCD Study will follow these children as they grow older and Dr Ronan hopes this will enable them to see whether structural differences in the brain change over time and exactly how they relate to obesity. In particular, it may help them understand whether managing a child鈥檚 weight will make a difference to their executive function.
When the team used waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio as a measure of obesity, they found that these, too, were associated with reduced executive function, but the link between cortical thickness was more complicated, with some regions showed reduced thickness while others showed increased thickness.
鈥淭his unique and openly available dataset has allowed us to examine the relationships between brain structure, cognitive functions and body weight,鈥 adds Professor Paul Fletcher, also at Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Psychiatry. 鈥 探花直播links that we observed suggest that there are very real structural brain and cognitive differences in children who are obese. 探花直播findings contribute a small part towards our growing understanding of the causes and consequences of obesity in children.鈥
探花直播research was supported by the Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Fund and Wellcome.
Reference
Ronan, L., Alexander-Bloch, A. & Fletcher, P. Cerebral Cortex; 24 Oct 2019; DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz257
Researcher Profile: Dr Lisa Ronan
Dr Lisa Ronan, a Senior Research Associate and Bernard Wolfe Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, wants to understand the relationship between obesity and the brain.
鈥 探花直播big question is whether obesity causes changes in brain structure or whether it鈥檚 differences in brain structure that lead to obesity,鈥 she says. 鈥淎t the moment, we don鈥檛 know the answer, but it potentially has important implications for brain health.鈥
In adults, being overweight or obese has been linked to an increased future risk of developing Alzheimer鈥檚 disease or dementia, while in children, increases in body mass index (BMI) are linked to changes in executive function. By understanding the causal relationship between obesity and brain health, Lisa hopes to help identify the mechanism which underpins this association.
Although Lisa began her career with a degree in Experimental Physics, she moved into a Masters degree in Medical Physics and from there too an interest in neuroimaging, which she says she immediately loved.
鈥淚 worked as a research assistant in a hospital, analysing patient MRI images and eventually completed my PhD, which focused on identifying brain differences in certain types of epilepsy.鈥
Day-to-day, her work is spent writing and running code to analyze data. 鈥 探花直播big moments when you press a button and a result pops up are rare. Mostly its just figuring things out, but this is actually the fun bit.鈥
Lisa says that when she started working in neuroimaging, datasets featured 鈥渢ens of subjects using fairly intuitive methods鈥. These days, datasets include tens of thousands of subjects, and ever more complex and sensitive parameters.
鈥淩esearch works best when done in collaboration, and I am very privileged to have always had terrific colleagues to discuss ideas with, and ask questions of,鈥 she says. 鈥淚n our department, we are particularly fortunate to attract individuals from many different backgrounds and with different specialties, including medicine, computer science, genetics and physics. This diversity not only enables you to answer a question more quickly than you might otherwise have been able to, but it deepens our understanding and scope of our research.鈥
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