Thanks to the images obtained by magnetic resonance imaging, a team of researchers from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven (USA) has been able to observe that greater weight and body mass index (BMI) in preadolescence is associated with better health. deficient brain.
Data presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting provide a mechanistic explanation for other studies showing that higher BMI in children is associated with poorer cognitive and school functioning.
«We know that being obese in adulthood is associated with poor brain health», says the researcher Simone Kaltenhauser. “However, previous studies in the pediatric population have often focused on small, specific groups or single aspects of brain health.”
In some countries childhood obesity is a growing concern; For example, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in five American children is obese.
This study used imaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study that included 11,878 children ages 9 to 10 from 21 centers across the country to represent sociodemographic diversity in the US. USA
After excluding those with eating disorders, psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diseases, and traumatic brain injury, 5,169 children (51.9% female) were included. Based on the children’s BMI scores (relative weight adjusted for the child’s age, sex, and height), the rates of overweight and obesity within the study group were 21% and 17.6%, respectively.
The researchers used information from structural MRI and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), which allow researchers to measure brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. With the second, in the resting state, the connectivity between neural regions, known as resting-state networks, is studied while the brain is at rest.
The results showed structural changes in the brain in children with increased weight and BMI, including significant deterioration in white matter integrity. Areas of degradation included the white matter of the corpus callosum, the main connector between the two hemispheres of the brain, and the pathways within the hemispheres that connect the lobes of the brain.
Increased BMI and weight are not only associated with physical health consequences, but also with brain health
«It is surprising that these changes were visible early on during childhood.», apunta Kaltenhauser.
The researchers also observed a thinning of the brain’s outermost layer, or cortex, which has been associated with impaired executive function.
Resting-state fMRI images revealed that increased weight gain and BMI scores were associated with decreased connectivity in functional networks of the brain involving cognitive control, motivation, and reward-based decision-making.
“Increased BMI and weight are not only associated with physical health consequences, but also with brain health,” Kaltenhauser said. Our study showed that higher weight and BMI scores in 9- and 10-year-olds were associated with changes in macrostructures, microstructures, and functional connectivity that worsened brain health.”