Abstract
There are reported gender differences in brain connectivity associated with obesity. In the elderlies, the neural endophenotypes of obesity are yet to be elucidated. We aim at exploring the brain metabolic and connectivity correlates to different BMI levels in elderly individuals, taking into account gender as variable of interest.We evaluated the association between BMI, brain metabolism and connectivity, in elderly females and males, by retrospectively collecting a large cohort of healthy elderly subjects (N=222; age=74.03±5.88 [61.2-85.9] years; M/F=115/107; BMI=27.00±4.02 [19.21-38.79] kg/m2). Subjects underwent positron emission tomography with [18F]FDG. We found that, in females, high BMI was associated with increased brain metabolism in the orbitofrontal cortex (R=0.44; p<0.001). A significant BMI-by-gender interaction was present (F=7.024, p=0.009). We also revealed an altered connectivity seeding from these orbitofrontal regions, namely expressing as a decreased connectivity in crucial control/decision making circuits, and as an abnormally elevated connectivity in reward circuits, only in females. Our findings support a link between high BMI and altered brain metabolism and neural connectivity, only in elderly females. These findings indicate a strong gender effect of high BMI and obesity that brings to considerations for medical practice and health policy.
Highlights
Obesity differs in women and men for several aspects
Voxel-based analysis ANCOVA showed no significant association between brain metabolism and Body Mass Index (BMI) in the male group
In the female group instead, we found that BMI significantly predicted brain metabolism, with higher BMI associated with increased brain metabolism in orbitofrontal regions, peaking in the right superior orbitofrontal gyrus at MNI coordinates (x, y, z) 8 44 -28, and remaining significant at p
Summary
Obesity differs in women and men for several aspects. The phenotype of female obesity is different from that of male obesity [2]. The gender difference in body composition might be due to hormonal, environmental, psychological and/or dietary www.aging-us.com factors [2]. Consistent evidence supports the theory that dietary patterns are different among sexes, as shown by Forster et al [3]. It was shown that males and females crave for different foods [5]. Response to sweet taste was reported stronger in men than women, with different degrees of activation of the caudate nucleus across sexes, as shown by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [6]
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