They say that youth is wasted on the young and, apparently when it comes to weight gain, so is brain function. A new exploratory study has found that if you’re a younger adult, visceral fat gain may have a negative impact on your cerebellar structure and functional connectivity.
The researchers as the University of Leipzig, Germany, led by Matthias Raschpichler, found that there was a link between visceral weight and low brain function in young-to-middle-aged people, but not in those aged 65 years or older. This study, published in BMJ Open, is innovative because, ‘to our knowledge, this is the first study that links cerebellar dynamics with abdominal fat distribution’ the researchers wrote.
Further, the study highlights how body mass index (BMI) is limited in comparison with visceral adipose tissue (VAT), because BMI was not found to be related to brain structure (grey matter density), nor did it indicate an interaction with age, though it was associated with functional connectivity. The researchers explained, ‘It is likely that with a cohort of participants who are overweight and slightly obese, processes related to alterations of VAT might interact below a threshold necessary for the BMI to detect changes.’
A group of 51 volunteers aged 20-45 years with an average BMI of 24.9 and one of 49 people aged 65-70 years with an average BMI of 27.0, participated in the study. In the group of younger people, as VAT increased, the grey matter density in both hemispheres of the cerebellum decreased. Lobule V and VI, which are thought to be involved in sensorimotor tasks, among other things, showed the most marked evidence of this effect.
The researchers said that this effect fits with previous findings that synaptogenesis and neurogenesis in some cerebellar areas increase in response to exercise training: ‘One may assume that a lack of physical activity contributes to both visceral adiposity and cerebellar brain changes.’ The researchers also found that higher levels of VAT were linked to reduced cerebellar functional connectivity in the younger group, again, especially in lobule VI, and reduced connectivity in parts of the left posterior temporal and parietal lobe.
Lobule VI is involved with language, executive functions, and emotional processing wellness, and this led the researchers to conclude, ‘Our findings thereby underscore an interdependency of physical activity, abdominal fat, cognitive function and cerebellar brain changes.’
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