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Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable

Recent molecular genetic studies have shown that the majority of genes associated with obesity are expressed in the central nervous system. Obesity has also been associated with neurobehavioral factors such as brain morphology, cognitive performance, and personality. Here, we tested whether these ne...

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Autores principales: Vainik, Uku, Baker, Travis E., Dadar, Mahsa, Zeighami, Yashar, Michaud, Andréanne, Zhang, Yu, García Alanis, José C., Misic, Bratislav, Collins, D. Louis, Dagher, Alain
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6140494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30154161
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718206115
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author Vainik, Uku
Baker, Travis E.
Dadar, Mahsa
Zeighami, Yashar
Michaud, Andréanne
Zhang, Yu
García Alanis, José C.
Misic, Bratislav
Collins, D. Louis
Dagher, Alain
author_facet Vainik, Uku
Baker, Travis E.
Dadar, Mahsa
Zeighami, Yashar
Michaud, Andréanne
Zhang, Yu
García Alanis, José C.
Misic, Bratislav
Collins, D. Louis
Dagher, Alain
author_sort Vainik, Uku
collection PubMed
description Recent molecular genetic studies have shown that the majority of genes associated with obesity are expressed in the central nervous system. Obesity has also been associated with neurobehavioral factors such as brain morphology, cognitive performance, and personality. Here, we tested whether these neurobehavioral factors were associated with the heritable variance in obesity measured by body mass index (BMI) in the Human Connectome Project (n = 895 siblings). Phenotypically, cortical thickness findings supported the “right brain hypothesis” for obesity. Namely, increased BMI is associated with decreased cortical thickness in right frontal lobe and increased thickness in the left frontal lobe, notably in lateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, lower thickness and volume in entorhinal-parahippocampal structures and increased thickness in parietal-occipital structures in participants with higher BMI supported the role of visuospatial function in obesity. Brain morphometry results were supported by cognitive tests, which outlined a negative association between BMI and visuospatial function, verbal episodic memory, impulsivity, and cognitive flexibility. Personality–BMI correlations were inconsistent. We then aggregated the effects for each neurobehavioral factor for a behavioral genetics analysis and estimated each factor’s genetic overlap with BMI. Cognitive test scores and brain morphometry had 0.25–0.45 genetic correlations with BMI, and the phenotypic correlations with BMI were 77–89% explained by genetic factors. Neurobehavioral factors also had some genetic overlap with each other. In summary, obesity as measured by BMI has considerable genetic overlap with brain and cognitive measures. This supports the theory that obesity is inherited via brain function and may inform intervention strategies.
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spelling pubmed-61404942018-09-18 Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable Vainik, Uku Baker, Travis E. Dadar, Mahsa Zeighami, Yashar Michaud, Andréanne Zhang, Yu García Alanis, José C. Misic, Bratislav Collins, D. Louis Dagher, Alain Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Recent molecular genetic studies have shown that the majority of genes associated with obesity are expressed in the central nervous system. Obesity has also been associated with neurobehavioral factors such as brain morphology, cognitive performance, and personality. Here, we tested whether these neurobehavioral factors were associated with the heritable variance in obesity measured by body mass index (BMI) in the Human Connectome Project (n = 895 siblings). Phenotypically, cortical thickness findings supported the “right brain hypothesis” for obesity. Namely, increased BMI is associated with decreased cortical thickness in right frontal lobe and increased thickness in the left frontal lobe, notably in lateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, lower thickness and volume in entorhinal-parahippocampal structures and increased thickness in parietal-occipital structures in participants with higher BMI supported the role of visuospatial function in obesity. Brain morphometry results were supported by cognitive tests, which outlined a negative association between BMI and visuospatial function, verbal episodic memory, impulsivity, and cognitive flexibility. Personality–BMI correlations were inconsistent. We then aggregated the effects for each neurobehavioral factor for a behavioral genetics analysis and estimated each factor’s genetic overlap with BMI. Cognitive test scores and brain morphometry had 0.25–0.45 genetic correlations with BMI, and the phenotypic correlations with BMI were 77–89% explained by genetic factors. Neurobehavioral factors also had some genetic overlap with each other. In summary, obesity as measured by BMI has considerable genetic overlap with brain and cognitive measures. This supports the theory that obesity is inherited via brain function and may inform intervention strategies. National Academy of Sciences 2018-09-11 2018-08-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6140494/ /pubmed/30154161 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718206115 Text en Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Vainik, Uku
Baker, Travis E.
Dadar, Mahsa
Zeighami, Yashar
Michaud, Andréanne
Zhang, Yu
García Alanis, José C.
Misic, Bratislav
Collins, D. Louis
Dagher, Alain
Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title_full Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title_fullStr Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title_full_unstemmed Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title_short Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
title_sort neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6140494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30154161
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718206115
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