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

Lisa Ronan | Aaron Alexander-Bloch | Paul C Fletcher
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) | 2020

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.

Pubmed ID: 31646343

Research resources used in this publication

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Associated grants

  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: K08 MH120564
  • Agency: NIDA NIH HHS, United States
    Id: U24 DA041123
  • Agency: NIDA NIH HHS, United States
    Id: U24 DA041147
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
    Id: RNAG/259

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FreeSurfer (tool)

RRID:SCR_001847

Open source software suite for processing and analyzing human brain MRI images. Used for reconstruction of brain cortical surface from structural MRI data, and overlay of functional MRI data onto reconstructed surface. Contains automatic structural imaging stream for processing cross sectional and longitudinal data. Provides anatomical analysis tools, including: representation of cortical surface between white and gray matter, representation of the pial surface, segmentation of white matter from rest of brain, skull stripping, B1 bias field correction, nonlinear registration of cortical surface of individual with stereotaxic atlas, labeling of regions of cortical surface, statistical analysis of group morphometry differences, and labeling of subcortical brain structures.Operating System: Linux, macOS.

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ABCD Study (tool)

RRID:SCR_015769

Long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. The study tracks subjects' biological and behavioral development through adolescence into young adulthood to determine how childhood experiences (such as sports, videogames, social media, unhealthy sleep patterns, and smoking) interact with each other and with a child’s changing biology to affect brain development and social, behavioral, academic, health, and other outcomes.

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