Lentoor Antonio G
Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria 0208, South Africa;
NeuroSci. 2022 Jun 28;3(3):376-386. doi: 10.3390/neurosci3030027. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Obesity has been linked to an increased risk of dementia in the future. Obesity is known to affect core neural structures, such as the hippocampus, and frontotemporal parts of the brain, and is linked to memory, attention, and executive function decline. The overwhelming majority of the data, however, comes from high-income countries. In undeveloped countries, there is little evidence of a link between obesity and neurocognition. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of BMI on the key cognitive functioning tasks of attention, memory, and executive function in a South African cohort.
A total of 175 females (NW: BMI = 18.5-24.9 kg/m and OB: BMI > 30.0 kg/m) aged 18-59 years (M = 28, SD = 8.87 years) completed tasks on memory, attention, and executive functioning.
There was a statistically significant difference between the groups. The participants who had a BMI corresponding with obesity performed poorly on the tasks measuring memory ( = 0.01), attention ( = 0.01), and executive function ( = 0.02) compared to the normal-weight group.
When compared to normal-weight participants, the findings confirm the existence of lowered cognitive performance in obese persons on tasks involving planning, decision making, self-control, and regulation. Further research into the potential underlying mechanism by which obesity impacts cognition is indicated.
肥胖与未来患痴呆症风险增加有关。已知肥胖会影响核心神经结构，如海马体以及大脑的额颞叶部分，并且与记忆、注意力和执行功能下降有关。然而，绝大多数数据来自高收入国家。在不发达国家，几乎没有证据表明肥胖与神经认知之间存在联系。本研究的目的是调查体重指数（BMI）对南非一组人群注意力、记忆和执行功能等关键认知功能任务的影响。
共有175名年龄在18至59岁（平均年龄M = 28岁，标准差SD = 8.87岁）的女性（正常体重组NW：BMI = 18.5 - 24.9 kg/m²，肥胖组OB：BMI > 30.0 kg/m²）完成了记忆、注意力和执行功能方面的任务。
两组之间存在统计学上的显著差异。与正常体重组相比，BMI处于肥胖范围的参与者在测量记忆（p = 0.01）、注意力（p = 0.01）和执行功能（p = 0.02）的任务中表现较差。
与正常体重的参与者相比，研究结果证实肥胖者在涉及计划、决策、自我控制和调节的任务中认知表现较低。表明需要进一步研究肥胖影响认知的潜在机制。
