Association between Visceral Adiposity Index, Binge Eating Behavior, and Grey Matter Density in Caudal Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Severe Obesity.

Sylvain Iceta,Anais Scovronec,Melissa Pelletier,André Tchernof,Andreanne Michaud,Laurent Biertho,Catherine Bégin,Mahsa Dadar,Justine Daoust,Vicky Leblanc

doi:10.3390/brainsci11091158

Abstract

Visceral adipose tissue accumulation is an important determinant of metabolic risk and can be estimated by the visceral adiposity index (VAI). Visceral adiposity may impact brain regions involved in eating behavior. We aimed to examine the association between adiposity measurements, binge eating behavior, and grey matter density. In 20 men and 59 women with severe obesity, Grey matter density was measured by voxel-based morphometry for six regions of interest associated with reward, emotion, or self-regulation: insula, orbitofrontal cortex, caudal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Binge eating behavior, depression and impulsivity was assessed by the Binge Eating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale, respectively. Men and women were distinctively divided into two subgroups (low-VAI and high-VAI) based on the mean VAI score. Women with high-VAI were characterized by metabolic alterations, higher binge eating score and lower grey matter density in the caudal ACC compared to women with low-VAI. Men with high-VAI were characterized by a higher score for the sensation-seeking subscale of the UPPS–Impulsive Behavior Scale compared to men with low-VAI. Using a moderation–mediation analysis, we found that grey matter density in the caudal ACC mediates the association between VAI and binge eating score. In conclusion, visceral adiposity is associated with higher binge eating severity in women. Decreased grey matter density in the caudal ACC, a region involved in cognition and emotion regulation, may influence this relationship.

Highlights

This article is an open access articleExcess body fat, especially within the abdominal cavity, is strongly related to metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and low-grade chronic inflammation [1,2,3]
We explored whether the association between visceral adiposity and binge eating severity is mediated by changes in grey matter density of our regions of interest (ROIs)
ROIs mean value for high- or low-visceral adiposity index (VAI) groups were compared independently according to sex using independent sample t-test and general linear model with age included as covariate

Summary

Introduction

This article is an open access articleExcess body fat, especially within the abdominal cavity, is strongly related to metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and low-grade chronic inflammation [1,2,3]. There is accumulating evidence that a subset of individuals with obesity, especially severe obesity, are at increased risk of disordered eating such as binge eating [7,8]. Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence suggests that binge eating is associated with cardiometabolic alterations, including insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cancer and type 2 diabetes [12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. The increased cardiometabolic risk associated with disrupted eating behavior can be attributed to excess visceral adiposity [20,21,22]. Little is known regarding the association between visceral adiposity and binge eating behavior, especially in individuals with severe obesity

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