White matter pathways as both a target and mediator of health behaviors (original) (raw)
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Psychosomatic medicine, 2012
Obesity and decreased physical health are linked to deficits in several cognitive domains. The broad range of cognitive problems linked to obesity suggests a global mechanism that may interfere with multiple neural systems. We examined how variation in body mass index (BMI) is associated with the microstructural integrity of fiber connections in the human brain. White matter structure was measured using diffusion tensor imaging in 28 participants (mean age = 30 years) with BMI scores ranging from normal weight to obese (19.5-45.7 kg/m(2)) based on standard BMI criteria. Using a whole-brain voxelwise analysis, we found that, across participants, the fractional anisotropy of white matter voxels parametrically decreased with increasing BMI (63% of white matter voxels). Midbrain and brainstem tracts were among the pathways most strongly associated with obesity (r = -0.18 to -0.33, df = 27, all p values < .05). We also observed a weaker overall diffusion signal in individuals with hig...
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2018
Obesity has been associated with a variety of neurobiological alterations. Recent neuroimaging research has pointed to the relevance of brain structural and functional alterations in the development of obesity. However, while the role of gray matter atrophy in obesity has been evidenced in several well powered studies, large scale evidence for altered white matter integrity in obese subjects is still absent. With this study, we therefore aimed to investigate potential associations between white matter abnormalities and body mass index (BMI) in two large independent samples of healthy adults. Associations between BMI values and whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA) were investigated in two independent cohorts: A sample of n = 369 healthy subjects from the Münster Neuroimaging Cohort (MNC), as well as a public available sample of n = 1064 healthy subjects of the Humane Connectome Project (HCP) were included in the present study. Tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses of BMI o...
Behavioural Neurology, 2015
In recent years, it has become clear that chronic systemic low-grade inflammation is at the root of many, if not all, typically Western diseases associated with the metabolic syndrome. While much focus has been given to sedentary lifestyle as a cause of chronic inflammation, it is less often appreciated that chronic inflammation may also promote a sedentary lifestyle, which in turn causes chronic inflammation. Given that even minor increases in chronic inflammation reduce brain volume in otherwise healthy individuals, the bidirectional relationship between inflammation and sedentary behaviour may explain why humans have lost brain volume in the last 30,000 years and also intelligence in the last 30 years. We review evidence that lack of physical activity induces chronic low-grade inflammation and, consequently, an energy conflict between the selfish immune system and the selfish brain. Although the notion that increased physical activity would improve health in the modern world is w...
Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2016
Age-associated cerebrovascular disease impacts brain tissue integrity, but other factors, including normal variation in blood markers of systemic health, may also influence the structural integrity of the brain. This cross-sectional study included 139 individuals between 40 to 86 years old who were physically healthy and cognitively intact. Eleven markers (total-cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, insulin, fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, albumin, total protein) and five derived indicators (estimated glomerular filtration rate, creatinine clearance rate, insulin-resistance, average glucose, and cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein ratio) were obtained from blood sampling. Diffusion tensor imaging was used to evaluate white matter tissue health. Blood markers were clustered into five factors. The first factor (defined as insulin/high-density lipoprotein factor) was associated with markers of integrity in ...
Neurobiology of aging, 2015
We examined the association of accelerated progression of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) with mortality outcomes in 534 older subjects at risk for cardiovascular disease. Using brain magnetic resonance imaging, volume of WMH was measured 2 times in an average of 33 months apart. After the second magnetic resonance imaging, occurrence of death was recorded during 12 years of follow-up. In multivariable analyses, each mL/y increase in global WMH was associated with 1.22-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.37) higher risk of all-cause mortality, 1.29-fold (95% CI, 1.06-1.56) higher risk of cardiovascular mortality, and 1.20-fold (95% CI, 1.02-1.40) higher risk of noncardiovascular mortality. Each mL/y increase in periventricular WMH was associated with 1.22-fold (95% CI, 1.08-37) higher risk of all-cause mortality and 1.24-fold (95% CI, 1.06-1.44) higher risk of noncardiovascular mortality. Conversely, deep cortical WMH was only associated with cardiovascular mortality (1.9...