Structural differences in brain found in obese children

Washington: Overweight, obese children aren’t only prone to future health risks but their brain structure has been found to have differences in regions linked to cognitive control, compared to those with normal weight.
However, researchers stated that it was hard to say if obesity caused these changes or whether the children are obese because their brain structures are different, according to a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
Previous studies have linked being overweight with scoring lower on various measures of executive function, an umbrella term for several functions such as self-control, decision making, working memory (temporarily holding information for processing) and response to rewards.
To examine if this link existed in children, researchers analysed data from 2,700 children between the ages of 9-11 years who had been recruited as part of the National Institutes of Health Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (NIH ABCD) Study.
They observed the thickness of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain – our so-called ‘grey matter’ – and compared it to each child’s body mass index (BMI) and also analysed results from tests of executive function.
An association between increased BMI and significant reductions in the average (mean) thickness of the cortex, as well as thinning in the pre-frontal region of the cortex, an area associated with cognitive control; was found.