Neuroanatomical correlates of genetic risk for obesity in children

Obesity has a strong genetic component, with up to 20% of variance in body mass index (BMI) being accounted for by common polygenic variation. Most genetic polymorphisms associated with BMI are related to genes expressed in the central nervous system. At the same time, higher BMI is associated with neurocognitive changes. However, the direct link between genetics of obesity and neurobehavioral mechanisms related to weight gain is missing. Here, we use a large sample of participants (n > 4000) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort to investigate how genetic risk for obesity, expressed as polygenic risk score for BMI (BMI-PRS), is related to brain and behavioral measures in adolescents. In a series of analyses, we show that BMI-PRS is related to lower cortical volume and thickness in the frontal and temporal areas, relative to age-expected values. Relatedly, using structural equation modeling, we find that lower overall cortical volume is associated with higher impulsivity, which in turn is related to an increase in BMI 1 year later. In sum, our study shows that obesity might partially stem from genetic risk as expressed in brain changes in the frontal and temporal brain areas, and changes in impulsivity.