ArticlePloS one2018
Volumetric gray matter measures of amygdala and accumbens in childhood overweight/obesity.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain structural and functional changes in childhood and adolescent obesity: a systematic review of MRI studies.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Obesity-related differences in amygdala and hippocampal volume and metabolism before and after a placebo-controlled antidepressant trial in major depressive disorder.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Weight gain and brain development in the ABCD study cohort: A decade of insight and the road ahead.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Cardiometabolic Risk and Structural Brain Development in a Large Community-Based US Cohort.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- The unique effects of chronic exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and indoor radon on subcortical brain morphology in youth.Neurotoxicology · 2026Article
- Article
- Relationship between body mass index, gray matter volume and peripheral inflammation in patients with post-COVID condition.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Structural and Functional Brain Changes in Children and Adolescents With Obesity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Review
- Volumetric brain alterations associated with a high-fat, high-fructose obesogenic diet: Insights from cross-sectional and longitudinal MRI in mice.Biochemical and biophysical research communications · 2025Article
- Cardiometabolic risk and structural brain development in a large community-based U.S. cohort.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- A central role of nutrition in cognitive function among primary school children: a cross-sectional analysis.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Shared and distinct alterations in brain morphology in children with ADHD and obesity: Reduced cortical surface area in ADHD and thickness in overweight/obesity.Journal of psychiatric research · 2024Article
- Association of Overweight and Obesity with Impaired Executive Functioning in Mexican Adolescents: The Importance of Inhibitory Control.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Smaller subcortical volume relates to greater weight gain in girls with initially healthy weight.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2024Article
- FTO variation and early frontostriatal brain development in children.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2024Article
- Biobehavioral susceptibility for obesity in childhood: Behavioral, genetic and neuroimaging studies of appetite.Physiology & behavior · 2023Review
- Paediatric obesity and metabolic syndrome associations with cognition and the brain in youth: Current evidence and future directions.Pediatric obesity · 2023Review
- Brain functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging of obesity and weight loss interventions.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Review
- Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity affects the uncinate fasciculus white matter tract in preterm infants.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- Obesity and brain structure in schizophrenia - ENIGMA study in 3021 individuals.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesNeuroimaging data suggest that pediatric overweight and obesity are associated with morphological alterations in gray matter (GM) brain structures, but previous studies using mainly voxel-based morphometry (VBM) showed inconsistent results. Here, we aimed to examine the relationship between youth obesity and the volume of predefined reward system structures using magnetic resonance (MR) volumetry. We also aimed to complement volumetry with VBM-style analysis.
methodsFifty-one Caucasian young subjects (32 females; mean age: 13.8±1.9, range: 10.2-16.5 years) were included. Subjects were selected from a subsample of the I.Family study examined in the Hungarian center. A T1-weighted 1 mm3 isotropic resolution image was acquired. Age- and sex-standardized body mass index (zBMI) was assessed at the day of MRI and ~1.89 years (mean±SD: 689±188 days) before the examination. Obesity related GM alterations were investigated using MR volumetry in five predefined brain structures presumed to play crucial roles in body weight regulation (hippocampus, amygdala, accumbens, caudate, putamen), as well as whole-brain and regional VBM.
resultsThe volumes of accumbens and amygdala showed significant positive correlations with zBMI, while their GM densities were inversely related to zBMI. Voxel-based GM mass also showed significant negative correlation with zBMI when investigated in the predefined amygdala region, but this relationship was mediated by GM density.
conclusionsOverweight/obesity related morphometric brain differences already seem to be present in children/adolescents. Our work highlights the disparity between volume and VBM-derived measures and that GM mass (combination of volume and density) is not informative in the context of obesity related volumetric changes. To better characterize the association between childhood obesity and GM morphometry, a combination of volumetric segmentation and VBM methods, as well as future longitudinal studies are necessary. Our results suggest that childhood obesity is associated with enlarged structural volumes, but decreased GM density in the reward system.
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