1 Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine , New York, NY.
2 Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research , Orangeburg, NY.
Child Obes. 2017 Jun;13(3):190-196. doi: 10.1089/chi.2016.0255. Epub 2017 Mar 3.
Childhood obesity and obesity-associated diabetes and metabolic syndrome (MetS) continue to rise. Obesity has been linked to structural and functional brain abnormalities, particularly in the frontal lobe.
One hundred sixty-two adolescents (aged 19.53 ± 1.53 years) underwent medical, neurocognitive, and brain magnetic resonance imaging assessments. Participants were either healthy weight (BMI <25.0 kg/m or BMI percentile <85%) or obese (BMI ≥30.0 kg/m or BMI percentile ≥95%). We evaluated frontal lobe cognitive functions and the size of the corpus callosum (CC).
Groups differed on four measures of processing speed contained in four different cognitive tests, but not on executive function. A confirmatory factor analysis verified that the significant processing speed variables loaded on the same factor. We also found differences between the weight groups on the area of the anterior portion of the CC, but not the overall CC. Only the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) was significantly correlated with the area of the anterior portion of the CC. In the obese group, 32.4% met criteria for MetS. No differences were found between obese participants with or without MetS and none of the MetS factors contributed consistently to cognitive performance.
Obese adolescents show slower cognitive processing speed while maintaining equivalent performance on executive functioning compared with their healthy weight peers. The group differences in the anterior portion of the CC, responsible for frontal lobe interhemispheric communication, may in part explain our processing speed findings. Future studies should include a longitudinal design and diffusion tensor imaging to examine the integrity of white matter.
儿童肥胖以及肥胖相关的糖尿病和代谢综合征（MetS）持续上升。肥胖与大脑结构和功能异常有关，尤其是额叶。
162 名青少年（年龄 19.53±1.53 岁）接受了医学、神经认知和脑磁共振成像评估。参与者为健康体重（BMI＜25.0kg/m 或 BMI 百分位＜85%）或肥胖（BMI≥30.0kg/m 或 BMI 百分位≥95%）。我们评估了额叶认知功能和胼胝体（CC）的大小。
两组在四项不同认知测试中的四项处理速度测量指标上存在差异，但在执行功能上没有差异。验证性因子分析证实，显著的处理速度变量加载在同一因子上。我们还发现体重组之间在前部 CC 区域存在差异，但在整个 CC 区域没有差异。只有受控口头单词联想测试（COWAT）与前 CC 区域的面积显著相关。在肥胖组中，32.4%符合 MetS 标准。患有或不患有 MetS 的肥胖参与者之间没有差异，也没有任何 MetS 因素一致影响认知表现。
与健康体重的同龄人相比，肥胖青少年的认知处理速度较慢，但执行功能表现相同。负责额叶半球间通讯的 CC 前部的组间差异可能部分解释了我们的处理速度发现。未来的研究应包括纵向设计和弥散张量成像，以检查白质的完整性。
