Brain structure and mental
performance are genetically connected to obesity, based on this research. As a branch of the Human Connectome Project,
1,200 people participated in a study that involved magnetic resonance image
(MRI) and cognitive test data exams, conducted by researchers of the Montreal
Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro). It was then recently published by the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cognitive flexibility,
ability to delay gratification, visuospatial ability and verbal memory were
revealed from the participants with higher body mass index (BMI) in this
study. A majority from that high BMI
group had thicker left prefrontal cortexes and thinner right prefrontal
cortexes as well. It is known that an
injured right prefrontal cortex resulted to greater food consumption. Additionally, these individuals had amygdalae
that were greater in size. That region
of the brain affects how a person reacts to cues of food. Furthermore, they had smaller sized
entorhinal-parahippocampal structures, a region affecting episodic memory and
context mediation. Those two findings mean
that obese people are more sensitive to visual cues, and cannot strongly resist
them by thinking of the consequences such as weight gain. A majority of the subjects were siblings to
determine the heritability of the traits and obesity using BMI. It was learned that several cognitive and
neurological traits have genetic links with obesity. It can then be concluded that genetics is
involved in obesity, possibly through brain anatomy and cognitive functions.
This leads me to think that the
types of bodies we have are largely determined by higher-level brain systems
that play roles in cognition, decision-making and motivation. Lastly, our different brain systems that determine
the amount of food we each consume can be said to be moderately heritable.
For additional information,
refer to the original article.
For additional information,
click the link of the journal the heritable correlation of neurobehavior with
obesity.
Awesome topic, I can certainly say that upon reading this post I am intrigued. What I am most curious about is how these factors such as brain structure and mental performance are affected by one’s natural metabolism or body type (endo, ecto, or mesomorphic). I feel as if this would be worth further investigation because what if an individual displays the anatomical features, such as brain structure, of those categorized as obese, but due to a naturally high metabolism they do not appear to gain excess weight. These individuals may be just as perceptible to visual cues by food and show little to no restraint on what they consume. However, due to their genetic makeup they are not as prone to weight gain.
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