Abstract
IntroductionNeuroscience evidence suggests that adolescent obesity is linked to brain dysfunctions associated with enhanced reward and somatosensory processing and reduced impulse control during food processing. Comparatively less is known about the role of more stable brain structural measures and their link to personality traits and neuropsychological factors on the presentation of adolescent obesity. Here we aimed to investigate regional brain anatomy in adolescents with excess weight vs. lean controls. We also aimed to contrast the associations between brain structure and personality and cognitive measures in both groups.MethodsFifty-two adolescents (16 with normal weight and 36 with excess weight) were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging and completed the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), the UPPS-P scale, and the Stroop task. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to assess possible between-group differences in regional gray matter (GM) and to measure the putative differences in the way reward and punishment sensitivity, impulsivity and inhibitory control relate to regional GM volumes, which were analyzed using both region of interest (ROI) and whole brain analyses. The ROIs included areas involved in reward/somatosensory processing (striatum, somatosensory cortices) and motivation/impulse control (hippocampus, prefrontal cortex).ResultsExcess weight adolescents showed increased GM volume in the right hippocampus. Voxel-wise volumes of the second somatosensory cortex (SII) were correlated with reward sensitivity and positive urgency in lean controls, but this association was missed in excess weight adolescents. Moreover, Stroop performance correlated with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volumes in controls but not in excess weight adolescents.ConclusionAdolescents with excess weight have structural abnormalities in brain regions associated with somatosensory processing and motivation.
Highlights
Neuroscience evidence suggests that adolescent obesity is linked to brain dysfunctions associated with enhanced reward and somatosensory processing and reduced impulse control during food processing
Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to assess possible between-group differences in regional gray matter (GM) and to measure the putative differences in the way reward and punishment sensitivity, impulsivity and inhibitory control relate to regional GM volumes, which were analyzed using both region of interest (ROI) and whole brain analyses
Voxel-wise volumes of the second somatosensory cortex (SII) were correlated with reward sensitivity and positive urgency in lean controls, but this association was missed in excess weight adolescents
Summary
Neuroscience evidence suggests that adolescent obesity is linked to brain dysfunctions associated with enhanced reward and somatosensory processing and reduced impulse control during food processing. A number of psychological factors have been proposed to explain the development and maintenance of obesity [1], in the past few years, the motivational traits associated with reward and punishment sensitivity, and the personality and neuropsychological dimensions associated with impulse control, have been highlighted as relevant modulators of such susceptibility [2,3]. The study of the brain structures associated with these motivational, personality and neuropsychological variables in obese adolescents could provide more sensitive information about excess weight during adolescence, since regional brain anatomy indices may be considered a more stable measurement linked to both personality and cognitive modulators associated to the development of particular disorders [7]. These findings indicate that volumetric brain measures are useful to characterize the neurobiological underpinnings of adolescent obesity, and that brain structural volumes are associated with both disease-specific features (e.g., BMI) and impulsive personality and cognitive control functions
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