Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.
Publication Date
2019-10-24Journal Title
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
ISSN
1047-3211
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Physical Medium
Print-Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Ronan, L., Alexander-Bloch, A., & Fletcher, P. (2019). Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.. Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz257
Abstract
The development of executive function is linked to maturation of prefrontal cortex in childhood. Childhood obesity has been associated with changes in brain structure, particularly in prefrontal cortex, 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 analysed MR-derived measures of cortical thickness for 2,700 children between the ages of 9-11 years, recruited as part of the NIH 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 prefrontal cortex
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust
Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Fund
Funder references
Wellcome Trust (095692/Z/11/Z)
Wellcome Trust (206368/Z/17/Z)
Embargo Lift Date
2100-01-01
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz257
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/297347