A fat tummy shrivels your brain
Obesity is linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, which is known to be associated with cognitive impairment. So Antonio Convit at the New York University School of Medicine wanted to see what impact obesity had on the physical structure of the brain. He used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brains of 44 obese individuals with those of 19 lean people of similar age and background.
He found that obese individuals had more water in the amygdala - a part of the brain involved in eating behaviour. He also saw smaller orbitofrontal cortices in obese individuals, important for impulse control and also involved in feeding behaviour (Brain Research, in press). "It could mean that there are less neurons, or that those neurons are shrunken," says Convit.
Eric Stice at Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, thinks that the findings strengthen the "slippery slope" theory of obesity. "If you overeat, it appears to result in neural changes that increase the risk for future overeating," he says. Obesity is associated with a constant, low-level inflammation, which Convit thinks explains the change in brain size.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
A fat gut shrivels your brain!
Great headline on this New Scientist piece!
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3 comments:
Umm, I kinda dislike the headline actually. Seems misleading on at least a couple of counts.
"(..)misleading on at least a couple of counts."
which would be?
I'd like to see a larger study done. I don't think you can draw too much of a conclusion from such a small test.
It would be interesting to do the same scans before and after weight loss to see if the brain returns to normal.
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