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Associations Among Body Mass Index, Cortical Thickness, and Executive Function in Children

Jennifer S Laurent1, Richard Watts2, Shana Adise3

  • 1Department of Nursing, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington.

JAMA Pediatrics
|December 10, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Higher body mass index (BMI) in children is linked to thinner cerebral cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex. This brain development difference may explain executive function deficits, impacting cognitive skills like working memory.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Overweight and obesity affect 25.7 million US children, linked to executive function deficits.
  • The impact of being overweight or obese on children's brain development remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and cerebral cortical thickness in children.
  • To determine if cortical thickness mediates the relationship between BMI and executive function.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study using structural MRI to map cortical thickness in 3190 children (aged 9-10).
  • Executive functions assessed using list sorting, flanker, matrix reasoning, and Wisconsin card sorting tasks.
  • Statistical analyses included general linear models, Pearson correlations, and mediation analysis.

Main Results:

  • Higher BMI was significantly associated with reduced cortical thickness in 18 brain regions, most notably the prefrontal cortex.
  • BMI inversely correlated with performance on list sorting, dimensional card sorting, and matrix reasoning tasks.
  • Prefrontal cortex thickness mediated the association between BMI and list sorting performance.

Conclusions:

  • Childhood BMI is associated with altered prefrontal cortex development.
  • These brain changes may underlie diminished executive functions, including working memory, in overweight/obese children.
Abstract

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