Functional network centrality in obesity: A resting-state and task fMRI study.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Public Health

Background:

• Obesity is linked to brain alterations, but whole-brain functional connectivity studies are limited.
• Brain regions involved in attention, executive, and motor functions may be affected.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare whole-brain functional connectivity in individuals with obesity versus normal-weight controls.
• To investigate differences in degree centrality and eigenvector centrality using fMRI data.

Main Methods:

• Compared voxel-wise degree centrality and eigenvector centrality between obese (n=20) and normal-weight (n=21) participants.
• Analyzed both resting-state and task-related functional MRI (fMRI) data.

Main Results:

• Obese individuals showed reduced degree centrality in the right middle frontal gyrus during rest.
• During task fMRI, obese participants had less degree centrality in the left middle frontal gyrus and lateral occipital cortex.
• Reduced eigenvector centrality was observed in the lateral occipital cortex and occipital pole in obese individuals during task fMRI.

Conclusions:

• The middle frontal gyrus plays a key role in obesity pathophysiology, influencing attention, executive, and motor functions.
• Task-dependent reductions in centrality in occipital areas suggest altered perceptual processing and attention modulation in obesity.