The Differential Effects of Adiposity and Fitness on Functional Connectivity in Preadolescent Children. Issue 10 (24th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: LOGAN, NICOLE E.; WESTFALL, DANIEL R.; RAINE, LAUREN B.; ANTERAPER, SHEEBA A.; CHADDOCK-HEYMAN, LAURA; WHITFIELD-GABRIELI, SUSAN; KRAMER, ARTHUR F.; HILLMAN, CHARLES H.
• Is Part Of: Medicine and science in sports and exercise. Volume 54:Issue 10(2022)
• Page Start: 1702
• Page End: 1713
• Publication Date: 2022-10-24
• Subjects: RESTING STATE -- FMRI -- BRAIN FUNCTION -- CHILDHOOD OBESITY -- CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS; Sports medicine -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Health aspects -- Periodicals; 612.044
• DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002964
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-9131

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Purpose: Childhood obesity is a global health concern, with >340 million youth considered overweight or obese. In addition to contributing greatly to health care costs, excess adiposity associated with obesity is considered a major risk factor for premature mortality from cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and is also negatively associated with cognitive and brain health. A complementary line of research highlights the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness, a by-product of engaging in physical activity, on an abundance of health factors, including cognitive and brain health. Methods: This study investigated the relationship among excess adiposity (visceral adipose tissue [VAT], subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue), total abdominal adipose tissue, whole-body percent fat [WB%FAT], body mass index (BMI), and fat-free cardiorespiratory fitness (FF-V̇O2max ) on resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in 121 ( f = 68) children (7–11 yr) using a data-driven whole-brain multivoxel pattern analysis. Results: Multivoxel pattern analysis revealed brain regions that were significantly associated with VAT, BMI, WB%FAT, and FF-V̇O2 measures. Yeo's (2011) RSFC-based seven-network cerebral cortical parcellation was used for labeling the results . Post hoc seed-to-voxel analyses found robust negative correlations of VAT and BMI with areas involved in the visual, somatosensory, dorsal attention, ventral attention, limbic, frontoparietal, and default mode networks. Further, positive correlations of FF-V̇O2 were observed with areas involved in the ventral attention and frontoparietal networks. These novel findings indicate that negative health factors in childhood may be selectively and negatively associated with the 7 Yeo-defined functional networks, yet positive health factors (FF-V̇O2 ) may be positively associated with these networks. Conclusions: These novel results extend the current literature to suggest that BMI and adiposity are negatively associated with, and cardiorespiratory fitness (corrected for fat-free mass) is positively associated with, RSFC networks in children.