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Published on: December 7, 2018
The Neurocognitive Performance of Visuospatial Attention in Children with Obesity
Chia-Liang Tsai1, Fu-Chen Chen2, Chien-Yu Pan3
1Lab of Cognitive Neurophysiology, Institute of Physical Education, Health and Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University Tainan, Taiwan.
Insights
Children with obesity show slower responses and impaired attention inhibition on visuospatial tasks compared to healthy weight children. This suggests obesity impacts executive functions supporting attention.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern.
- Obesity is linked to various cognitive and neurological alterations.
- Executive functions, crucial for attention, may be affected by obesity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate behavioral and electrophysiological differences in visuospatial attention between children with and without obesity.
- To examine the impact of obesity on attentional inhibition and executive function modulation.
Main Methods:
- A variant of the Posner paradigm was used to assess visuospatial attention.
- Behavioral responses (reaction time) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded.
- Participants included 26 children with obesity and 26 healthy weight controls.
Main Results:
- Children with obesity exhibited slower reaction times, particularly in invalid cue conditions.
- The obese group showed deficits in attentional inhibition.
- While P3 latency did not differ, the obese group displayed smaller P3 amplitudes during the task.
Conclusions:
- Childhood obesity is associated with impaired behavioral performance in visuospatial attention tasks.
- Obesity affects cognitive electrophysiology, indicated by reduced P3 amplitudes.
- These findings suggest obesity impairs the executive function network supporting visuospatial attention in children.
Abstract:
The present study investigates the behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) in children with obesity and healthy weight children when performing a visuospatial attention task. Twenty-six children with obesity (obese group) and 26 healthy weight children (control group) were recruited. Their behavioral performance during a variant of the Posner paradigm was measured, and brain ERPs were recorded concurrently. The behavioral data revealed that the obese group responded more slowly, especially in the invalid condition, and exhibited a deficit in attentional inhibition capacity as compared to the control group. In terms of cognitive electrophysiological performance, although the obese group did not show significant differences on P3 latency elicited by the target stimuli when compared to the control group, they exhibited smaller P3 amplitudes when performing the visuospatial attention task. These results broaden previous findings, and indicate that childhood obesity is associated with a reduced ability to modulate the executive function network which supports visuospatial attention.
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