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Functional Interrogation of Adult Hypothalamic Neurogenesis with Focal Radiological Inhibition
Published on: November 14, 2013
Altered hypothalamic functional connectivity in adolescents with severe obesity.
Allison L B Shapiro1,2, Meghan E Pauley3, Jaime M Moore4
1Section of Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora, CO, USA. allison.shapiro@cuanschutz.edu.
International Journal of Obesity (2005)
|June 2, 2026
Summary
Adolescents with severe obesity show altered brain connectivity in the hypothalamus, impacting homeostatic regulation. These changes occur in both fasting and fed states, suggesting a need to include homeostatic circuitry in pediatric obesity research.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Adolescent Health
- Obesity Research
Background:
- Neurobiological studies of youth obesity often overlook homeostatic systems, particularly the hypothalamus.
- Understanding interactions between homeostatic and non-homeostatic brain systems is crucial for treating severe obesity in adolescents.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate differences in hypothalamic functional connectivity between adolescents with severe obesity and healthy-weight peers.
- To examine these connectivity patterns across fasting and fed states.
Main Methods:
- A single-blinded, randomized cross-over trial involving adolescents aged 13-18 with severe obesity (SO) and healthy weight (HW).
- Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in both fasting and fed states (after glucose ingestion).
- Multivariate general linear models with the hypothalamus as the seed region were employed to analyze functional connectivity.
Main Results:
- In the fasting state, adolescents with SO showed weaker hypothalamic connectivity to the cerebellum and left middle occipital gyrus, and stronger connectivity to the right postcentral/supramarginal gyri compared to HW peers.
- In the fed state, adolescents with SO exhibited increased hypothalamic connectivity to the bilateral middle frontal gyri and right putamen, and decreased connectivity to the right caudate and left superior frontal gyrus.
- These alterations in hypothalamic connectivity were observed across both fasting and fed conditions in adolescents with severe obesity.
Conclusions:
- Severe obesity in adolescents is linked to disrupted communication between the homeostatic hypothalamus and non-homeostatic brain regions.
- The findings highlight the importance of integrating homeostatic circuitry into neurobiological models of pediatric obesity.
- Altered hypothalamic connectivity in severe obesity persists across different metabolic states (fasting and fed).
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