Dataset Information

Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.

ABSTRACT: The development of executive function is linked to maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in childhood. Childhood obesity has been associated with changes in brain structure, particularly in PFC, as well as deficits in executive functions. We aimed to determine whether differences in cortical structure mediate the relationship between executive function and childhood obesity. We analyzed MR-derived measures of cortical thickness for 2700 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years, recruited as part of the NIH Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We related our findings to measures of executive function and body mass index (BMI). In our analysis, increased BMI was associated with significantly reduced mean cortical thickness, as well as specific bilateral reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal cortical regions. This relationship remained after accounting for age, sex, race, parental education, household income, birth-weight, and in-scanner motion. Increased BMI was also associated with lower executive function. Reduced thickness in the rostral medial and superior frontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex partially accounted for reductions in executive function. These results suggest that childhood obesity is associated with compromised executive function. This relationship may be partly explained by BMI-associated reduced cortical thickness in the PFC.

SUBMITTER: Ronan L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7175011 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.

Ronan Lisa L Alexander-Bloch Aaron A Fletcher Paul C PC

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20200401 4

The development of executive function is linked to maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in childhood. Childhood obesity has been associated with changes in brain structure, particularly in PFC, as well as deficits in executive functions. We aimed to determine whether differences in cortical structure mediate the relationship between executive function and childhood obesity. We analyzed MR-derived measures of cortical thickness for 2700 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years, recruited as p ...[more]

PMID: 31646343

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Project description:Importance:A total of 25.7 million children in the United States are classified as overweight or obese. Obesity is associated with deficits in executive function, which may contribute to poor dietary decision-making. Less is known about the associations between being overweight or obese and brain development. Objective:To examine whether body mass index (BMI) is associated with thickness of the cerebral cortex and whether cortical thickness mediates the association between BMI and executive function in children. Design, Setting, and Participants:In this cross-sectional study, cortical thickness maps were derived from T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance images of a large, diverse sample of 9 and 10-year-old children from 21 US sites. List sorting, flanker, matrix reasoning, and Wisconsin card sorting tasks were used to assess executive function. Main Outcomes and Measures:A 10-fold nested cross-validation general linear model was used to assess mean cortical thickness from BMI across cortical brain regions. Associations between BMI and executive function were explored with Pearson partial correlations. Mediation analysis examined whether mean prefrontal cortex thickness mediated the association between BMI and executive function. Results:Among 3190 individuals (mean [SD] age, 10.0 [0.61] years; 1627 [51.0%] male), those with higher BMI exhibited lower cortical thickness. Eighteen cortical regions were significantly inversely associated with BMI. The greatest correlations were observed in the prefrontal cortex. The BMI was inversely correlated with dimensional card sorting (r?=?-0.088, P?<?.001), list sorting (r?=?-0.061, P?<?.003), and matrix reasoning (r?=?-0.095, P?<?.001) but not the flanker task. Mean prefrontal cortex thickness mediated the association between BMI and list sorting (mean [SE] indirect effect, 0.014 [0.008]; 95%?CI, 0.001-0.031) but not the matrix reasoning or card sorting task. Conclusions and Relevance:These results suggest that BMI is associated with prefrontal cortex development and diminished executive functions, such as working memory.

Dataset Information

Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.

Publications

Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.

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