scholarly journals Do Overweight People Have Worse Cognitive Flexibility? Cues-Triggered Food Craving May Have a Greater Impact

Nutrients ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Shiqing Song ◽  
Qingqing Li ◽  
Yan Jiang ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Aidi Xu ◽  
...  

Background: Overweight people have been revealed to have poor cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility reflects proactive and reactive control abilities. However, the impairment had not been explicitly positioned at the cognitive stage. Therefore, this study provides increased support for impairment of cognitive flexibility due to overweight. Method: The study included 34 overweight and 35 normal-weight participants. They were required to complete the food and flower target AX-continuous performance test (AX–CPT), including the resting-state fMRI and cue-triggered food craving subscales. We compared the performance difference between the two tasks. Furthermore, we investigated whether the cue-triggered food cravings and the corresponding brain regions mediated the effect of overweight on the two control mechanisms. Result: Significant differences were found only in the food target AX-CPT task, where overweight participants performed worse. Cue-triggered food cravings mediated this relationship. Additionally, we found that the brain regions associated with cue-triggered food cravings (bilateral SFG) can completely mediate the relationship between BMI and the z-value of the fat mass index and sensitivity to proactive control. Conclusion: In the food target task, overweight participants performed worse in both control mechanisms. Moreover, we also revealed the potential mechanism by which being overweight might affect the two control mechanisms through cue-triggered food cravings.

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 1331-1337
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Amen ◽  
Joseph Wu ◽  
Noble George ◽  
Andrew Newberg

Background: While obesity has been shown to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, the potential mechanisms underlying this risk may be clarified with better understanding of underlying physiology in obese persons. Objective: To identify patterns of cerebral perfusion abnormality in adults as a function of body mass index (BMI) defined weight categories, including overweight or obese status. Methods: A large psychiatric cohort of 35,442 brain scans across 17,721 adults (mean age 40.8±16.2 years, range 18–94 years) were imaged with SPECT during baseline and concentration scans, the latter done after each participant completed the Connors Continuous Performance Test II. ANOVA was done to identify patterns of perfusion abnormality in this cohort across BMI designations of underweight (BMI < 18.5), normal weight (BMI = 18.5 to 24.9), overweight (BMI 24.9 to 29.9), obesity (BMI≥30), and morbid obesity (BMI≥40). This analysis was done for 128 brain regions quantifying SPECT perfusion using the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas. Results: Across adulthood, higher BMI correlated with decreased perfusion on both resting and concentration brain SPECT scans. These are seen in virtually all brain regions, including those influenced by AD pathology such as the hippocampus. Conclusion: Greater BMI is associated with cerebral perfusion decreases in both resting and concentration SPECT scans across adulthood.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (OCE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sussanne Reyes ◽  
Patricio Peirano ◽  
Betsy Lozoff ◽  
Cecilia Algarin

Abstract IntroductionObesity has been associated with lower white matter integrity (WMI) in limbic brain regions, including the fornix. Both early decrease of WMI in the fornix (WMIf) and midlife obesity have been related to dementia incidence with advancing age. No studies have explored early cognitive predictors of WMIf in overweight-obese (OO) adults. Aim of this study was to compare OO and normal-weight (NW) participants with respect to (a) WMIf in adulthood and (b) the relationship between cognitive performance at school-age and in adolescence with WMIf in adulthood.MethodsParticipants were part of a cohort followed since infancy who underwent magnetic resonance imaging studies in adulthood (22.3 ± 1.3 years). Diffusion tensor imaging was performed and Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was used to obtain fractional anisotropy (FA) skeleton; increased FA relates to greater WMI. A mask for the fornix was created (JHU-ICBM DTI-81 Atlas) and then used to extract the average FA for each individual. Participants also performed neurocognitive tasks: (a) school-age (10.3 ± 1.0 years): the trail making test comprises two conditions and time difference between conditions reflects cognitive flexibility; (b) adolescence (15.6 ± 0.5 years): incentive task that test the effect of incentives (reward, loss avoidance or neutral) on inhibitory control performance (correct responses latency). In adulthood, BMI was categorized as NW (≥ 18.5 to < 25.0 kg/m2) and OO (≥ 25.0 kg/m2) groups. A t-test and univariate GLM were conducted. Analysis were adjusted by sex and age-specific BMI z-scores.ResultsParticipants were 27 NW (41% female) and 41 OO (49% female). Compared to NW, OO participants showed decreased FA in the fornix (0.585 vs. 0.618, p < 0.05), i.e. lower WMIf. Differences were apparent in the relationship between cognitive flexibility at school-age (F = 2.9, p = 0.06) and loss avoidance latency in adolescence (F = 3.5, p < 0.05) with FA in the fornix in adulthood. Increased cognitive flexibility at school-age (β = 0.335, p < 0.05) and decreased loss avoidance latency in adolescence (β = -0.581, p < 0.001) were related to higher FA in the fornix in OO adults. No relationship resulted significant in NW adults.DiscussionPerformance in neurocognitive tasks at earlier developmental stages were related with WMIf only in OO adults, group characterized by decreased WMIf. Our results provide evidence regarding specific neurocognitive tasks with predictive value for WMIf alterations. Further, they could contribute to the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying obesity and also provide insight relative to neurodegenerative risk with advancing age.SupportFondecyt 11160671 and NIH HD33487.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Tana ◽  
E. Montin ◽  
S. Cerutti ◽  
A. M. Bianchi

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in eight healthy subjects to identify the localization, magnitude, and volume extent of activation in brain regions that are involved in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response during the performance of Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT). An extensive brain network was activated during the task including frontal, temporal, and occipital cortical areas and left cerebellum. The more activated cluster in terms of volume extent and magnitude was located in the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Analyzing the dynamic trend of the activation in the identified areas during the entire duration of the sustained attention test, we found a progressive decreasing of BOLD response probably due to a habituation effect without any deterioration of the performances. The observed brain network is consistent with existing models of visual object processing and attentional control and may serve as a basis for fMRI studies in clinical populations with neuropsychological deficits in Conners' CPT performance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio A. Valadez ◽  
Sonya V. Troller-Renfree ◽  
George A. Buzzell ◽  
Heather A. Henderson ◽  
Andrea Chronis-Tuscano ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundBehavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament style characterized by heightened reactivity and negative affect in response to novel people and situations, and it is a strong predictor of anxiety problems later in life. However, not all BI children develop anxiety problems and mounting evidence suggests that how one manages their cognitive resources (cognitive control) influences anxiety risk. The present study tests whether more (proactive control) or less (reactive control) planful cognitive strategies moderate relations between BI and anxiety.MethodsParticipants included 144 adolescents (55.9% female) whose temperament was assessed during toddlerhood. In adolescence (Mage = 15.4 years), participants completed an AX Continuous Performance Test while EEG was recorded in order to disentangle neural activity related to proactive (cue-locked P3b) and reactive (probe-locked N2) control.ResultsBI was associated with greater total anxiety scores only among adolescents with smaller ΔP3bs and larger ΔN2s – a pattern consistent with decreased reliance on proactive strategies and increased reliance on reactive strategies. Additionally, a larger ΔP3b was associated with greater total anxiety scores.ConclusionsBI relates to risk for anxiety specifically among adolescents who rely less on proactive strategies and more on reactive control strategies. Results further suggest that proactive control differentiates a BI-related etiological pathway to anxiety from a more general pathway to anxiety occurring regardless of BI level. Thus, developmental context (i.e., temperament) moderates the association between anxiety and proactive control. The present study is the first to characterize how proactive and reactive control uniquely relate to pathways toward anxiety risk.


Author(s):  
M. A. Stopyra ◽  
H.-C. Friederich ◽  
N. Lavandier ◽  
E. Mönning ◽  
M. Bendszus ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Food intake in obesity has been found to be reward-based and less contingent on homeostatic needs. Accordingly, previous studies investigating neural processing of food cues observed aberrant processing in reward- and control-related brain regions in obesity. To further investigate the relation between homeostasis and food intake, this study investigated the influence of glucose metabolism on the neuronal response during the regulation of food craving in participants with obesity. Methods Twenty-five normal-weight and 25 women with obesity were examined on two occasions after receiving either water or glucose directly into the stomach using a nasogastric tube. Participants were blinded to the type of infusion and were required to refrain from eating for 16 h before each visit. An event-related fMRI paradigm was used to investigate the effect of intestinal glucose load on the neuronal response during the regulation of food craving. Results A 2 × 2 mixed-model ANOVA revealed that craving regulation was associated with increased activation in fronto-parietal regions in participants with obesity when compared to healthy controls. However, this effect was observed independently from homeostatic satiety. A regression analysis revealed that the reduction of food craving was related to increased activation in the lingual gyrus in individuals with obesity following the infusion of water. Conclusions In participants with obesity, the neuronal response during the regulation of food craving is associated with increased neural cognitive top-down control and increased visual food processing. Since this observation was independent from satiety status, our results indicate a reduced influence of homeostasis on neural processing during food craving in obesity. This study was registered on clinicaltrials.org: NCT03075371.


Author(s):  
K. Hennighausen ◽  
G. Schulte-Körne ◽  
A. Warnke ◽  
H. Remschmidt

Zusammenfassung Fragestellung: Gibt es neurophysiologische Korrelate der Aufmerksamkeitsstörung beim hyperkinetischen Syndrom (HKS) und welche Bedeutung haben diese für die Ätiologie der Störung. Methodik: Selektive Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse wurden anhand des zweistufigen Continuous Performance Test (CPT) bei 18 Jungen mit hyperkinetischem Syndrom (HKS) untersucht und mit einer nach dem Alter parallelisierten Kontrollgruppe von 21 Jungen verglichen. Die Altersspanne der Stichprobe betrug 6 bis 12 Jahre. Parallel dazu wurden ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale (EKP) während des Tests an den Elektrodenpositionen Fz, Cz, Pz und Oz mit Referenz zu verbundenen Ohren abgeleitet. Ergebnisse: Im EKP nach dem präparatorischen Stimulus konnten zwei Komponenten der Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) mit unterschiedlicher topographischer Verteilung identifiziert werden (CNV-1: 600 bis 1100 ms und CNV-2: 1000 bis 1500 ms nach Stimulus). Die Stichproben unterschieden sich nicht auf der Verhaltensebene (Fehlerrate und Reaktionszeit). Signifikante Gruppenunterschiede ergaben sich hinsichtlich der Topographie der beiden CNV-Komponenten. Kinder mit HKS zeigten im Vergleich zu Kontrollkindern eine signifikant niedrigere CNV-1 über der frontalen und eine Tendenz zu stärkerer Negativierung (CNV-1 und CNV-2) über der occipitalen Elektrode. Schlussfolgerungen: Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Hypothese einer Unterfunktion frontaler inhibitorischer Prozesse bei Kindern mit HKS.


Crisis ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netta Horesh

Objectives: To compare the use of a self-report form of impulsivity versus a computerized test of impulsivity in the assessment of suicidal adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Methods: Sixty consecutive admissions to an adolescent in patient unit were examined. The severity of suicidal behavior was measured with the Childhood Suicide Potential Scale (CSPS), and impulse control was measured with the self report Plutchik Impulse Control Scale (ICS) and with the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA), a continuous performance test (CPT). The TOVA is used to diagnose adolescents with attention deficit disorder. Results: There was a significant but low correlation between the two measures of impulsivity. Only the TOVA commission and omission errors differentiated between adolescent suicide attempters and nonattempters. Conclusions: Computerized measures of impulsivity may be a useful way to measure impulsivity in adolescent suicide attempters. Impulsivity appears to play a small role only in nondepressed suicidal adolescents, especially boys.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dubi Lufi ◽  
Shachar Pan

Abstract. Several studies have shown that Continuous Performance Tests (CPT) can diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) better than other tests. Research reporting comparisons of two or more CPT-type tests is scarce. The purpose of the study was to compare the Mathematics Continuous Performance Test (MATH-CPT) with another CPT-type test (CPT II) and a questionnaire (the Brown Scale). The comparison was carried out by looking at correlations among subscales and checking the precision of detecting ADHD. Ninety-five high school and college students participated in the study, 41 with ADHD were the research group and 54 were the control group. The participants performed the two tests and answered the questionnaire. The results showed that the MATH-CPT correctly identified 74.50% of the participants of both groups as compared to the 71.60% of the CPT II. Correlations between the two CPT-type tests were moderate; however, they were similar to correlations found in other studies comparing similar tools. The MATH-CPT, final attention formula, showed significant correlations with the Brown scales, while the CPT II, confidence index associated with ADHD assessment, showed nonsignificant correlations with the questionnaire. The study indicated that MATH-CPT can be used with a clinical population of ADHD and for research purposes.


Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Sung-Chou Li ◽  
Ho-Chang Kuo ◽  
Lien-Hung Huang ◽  
Wen-Jiun Chou ◽  
Sheng-Yu Lee ◽  
...  

DNA methylation levels are associated with neurodevelopment. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), characterized by attention deficits, is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. We used methylation microarray and pyrosequencing to detect peripheral blood DNA methylation markers of ADHD. DNA methylation profiling data from the microarray assays identified potential differentially methylated CpG sites between 12 ADHD patients and 9 controls. Five candidate CpG sites (cg00446123, cg20513976, cg07922513, cg17096979, and cg02506324) in four genes (LIME1, KCNAB2, CAPN9, and SPTBN2) were further examined with pyrosequencing. The attention of patients were tested using the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CPT). In total, 126 ADHD patients with a mean age of 9.2 years (78.6% males) and 72 healthy control subjects with a mean age of 9.3 years (62.5% males) were recruited. When all participants were categorized by their CPT performance, the DNA methylation levels in LIME1 (cg00446123 and cg20513976) were found to be significantly higher and those in SPTBN2 (cg02506324) were significantly lower in children with worse CPT performance. Therefore, DNA methylation of two CpG sites in LIME1 and one CpG site in SPTBN2 is associated with attention deficits in children. DNA methylation biomarkers may assist in identifying attention deficits of children in clinical settings.


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