Neurocognitive Inhibitory Control Ability Performance and Correlations with Biochemical Markers in Obese Women

Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress prepotent responses and resist irrelevant stimuli, is thought to play a critical role in the maintenance of obesity. However, electrophysiological performance related to different inhibitory control processes and their relationship with motor response inhibition and cognitive interference and potential biochemical mechanisms in middle-aged, obese women are as yet unclear. This work thus compared different neurocognitive Go/Nogo and Stroop task performance in healthy sedentary normal-weight and obese women, as well as their correlation with biochemical markers. Twenty-six healthy, sedentary obese women (obese group) and 26 age-matched (21-45 years old) normal-weight women (control group) were the participants, categorized by body mass index and percentage fat, as measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. They provided a fasting blood sample and performed two cognitive tasks (i.e., Go/Nogo and Stroop tasks) with concomitant electrophysiological recording. The N2 and P3 waveforms of event-related potential (ERP) were recorded. Although the between-group behavioral performance was comparable, the obese group relative to the control group showed significantly longer N2 latency and smaller P3 amplitude in the Stroop task and smaller N2 and P3 amplitudes in the Go/Nogo task. Significant inflammation response indices (e.g., CRP, leptin, adiponectin/leptin ratio) were observed in the obese group. The Nogo P3 amplitude was significantly correlated with the adiponectin/leptin ratio. These findings indicate that healthy obese women still exhibit deviant neurophysiological performance when performing Go/Nogo and Stroop tasks, where the adiponectin/leptin ratio could be one of the influencing factors for the deficit in neural processes of motor response inhibition.