Altered resting-state brain activity observed in women with obesity

Regions of the brain involved in food processing are more active in women with obesity vs. normal-weight women, independent of food intake, according to recent study findings.

Pleunie S. Hogenkamp, PhD, of the department of neuroscience at Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues analyzed data from 17 women with severe obesity who were seeking to undergo bariatric surgery at University Hospital of Uppsala (mean age, 39 years; mean BMI, 43.2 kg/m²) and 12 normal-weight women who served as controls (mean age, 36 years; mean BMI, 22.7 kg/m²). After an overnight fast, all women provided blood samples and underwent resting-state functional MRI measurements in the morning. Participants then consumed 250 mL of a milk-based vanilla-flavored drink before undergoing a second resting-state scan and providing a second blood sample. Resting-state imaging sequences lasted 6 minutes.

Researchers found that women with obesity had increased low-frequency activity in individual clusters incorporating the right putamen, left inferior parietal lobe and left putamen (reaching the insula), independent of food intake (P < .05 for all).

After drink consumption, researchers did not observe a “weight status x time” interaction effect on hunger, fullness, fatigue or plasma glucose concentrations, but participants with obesity also exhibited higher mean fasting serum insulin levels vs. controls (P < .01).

“Since previous studies have shown that peripheral insulin resistance concurs with altered resting-state brain activity, it must be kept in mind that obesity-related health risks, such as insulin resistance, could have contributed to the observed differences in brain activity between obese and normal-weight females in our study,” the researchers wrote. – by Regina Schaffer

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

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Source: Hogenkamp PS, et al. Int J Obes. 2016;doi:10.1038/ijo.2016.105.