Onset of puberty has been associated with lower body mass index (BMI) in adulthood independent of childhood BMI. However, how the relationship between time of onset of puberty and BMI in adulthood is associated with neurocognitive outcomes is largely unstudied. Here, women were sampled from the Human Connectome Project 1200 PTN release. Inclusion criteria were: 4 (15 minute) resting state fMRI scans, current measured BMI, self-reported age at onset of menstruation (a proxy of age at onset of puberty), and no endocrine complications (e.g., polycystic ovarian syndrome). The effect of age at onset of menstruation, measured BMI at scan date, and the interaction of age at onset of menstruation by BMI on brain functional correlation was modeled using FSLnets controlling for race and age at scan. Corrected significance was set at pFWE<0.05. A final sample of n=510 (age 29.5y±3.6; BMI at scan 25.9±5.6; age at onset of menstruation 12.7±1.6) were included. Age at onset of menstruation was negatively associated with BMI at scan (r=-0.19, p<0.001). The interaction between age at onset of menstruation and BMI at scan was associated with stronger correlation between a somatosensory and visual network (t= 3.45, pFWE= 0.026), and a visual network and cingulo-opercular task control network (t= 4.74, pFWE= 0.0002). We show increased correlation between visual, taste-associated, and self-control brain regions in women at high BMI with later age at onset of menstruation. Together, this implies that the association between later menarche and lower BMI may impart improved self-control during exposure to visual cues.
Earlier onset of menstruation is related to increased body mass index in adulthood and altered functional correlations between visual, task control, and somatosensory brain networks