Neural Correlates of Obesity Across the Lifespan

Overview

Journal Commun Biol

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 May 28

PMID 38806652

Authors

Filip Morys

Christina Tremblay

Shady Rahayel

Justine Y Hansen

Alyssa Dai

Bratislav Misic

Alain Dagher

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Associations between brain and obesity are bidirectional: changes in brain structure and function underpin over-eating, while chronic adiposity leads to brain atrophy. Investigating brain-obesity interactions across the lifespan can help better understand these relationships. This study explores the interaction between obesity and cortical morphometry in children, young adults, adults, and older adults. We also investigate the genetic, neurochemical, and cognitive correlates of the brain-obesity associations. Our findings reveal a pattern of lower cortical thickness in fronto-temporal brain regions associated with obesity across all age cohorts and varying age-dependent patterns in the remaining brain regions. In adults and older adults, obesity correlates with neurochemical changes and expression of inflammatory and mitochondrial genes. In children and older adults, adiposity is associated with modifications in brain regions involved in emotional and attentional processes. Thus, obesity might originate from cognitive changes during early adolescence, leading to neurodegeneration in later life through mitochondrial and inflammatory mechanisms.

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