ArticleCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2020
Childhood Obesity, Cortical Structure, and Executive Function in Healthy Children.
Article in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04346433 (Sleep and Stigma), which is not on this map. Cited by 109 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Sleep and Stigma: Novel Moderators in the Relationship Between Weight Status and Cognitive Function
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 176 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
- Optimal dosage of exercise interventions for enhancing inhibitory control in overweight and obese children and adolescents: insights from a multilevel meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Child and Adolescent Health Programs in Obesity and Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Optimal exercise intensity for improving executive function in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: systematic review and network meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The effects of nuts intake on cognitive and executive function in obese children: a randomized clinical trial.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Trial
- The mediating role of brain structural-functional connectivity coupling in linking paternal education to BMI and depressive scores in young adults.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association of prenatal depression and anxiety with cortical development and behavioral outcomes in 8-year-old children.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Associations of Ultra-Processed Foods and Executive Function in Children With Obesity and Their Parents: A Cross-Sectional Study.Pediatric obesity · 2026Observational
- Weight gain and brain development in the ABCD study cohort: A decade of insight and the road ahead.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Parenting behaviors over time and their effects on cortical and limbic brain structure in children and young adults.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Cardiometabolic Risk and Structural Brain Development in a Large Community-Based US Cohort.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Altered effective connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and caudate in children with overweight and obesity.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Bidirectional Causal Relationships Between Obesity and Executive Function in Children and Adolescents: A Genetic Instrumental Variable Analysis.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Central Adiposity Accumulation is Associated with Cortical Alteration and Impaired Cognitive Function in Adolescents.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Nonlinear associations between body mass index and brain microstructure across adolescence in the ABCD Study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Associations of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI With Frontostriatal Connectivity in Young Children.Pediatric obesity · 2026Article
- Introducing Structural Reliance: A New Method to Assess Structure-Function Coupling in the Brain.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Serum S100β and neuron-specific enolase correlate with obesity parameters in Mexican children.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Measurement of executive functioning in pre-school aged children in India: a scoping review.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Body mass index, cortical thickness and executive function in late childhood.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The development of executive function is linked to maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in childhood. Childhood obesity has been associated with changes in brain structure, particularly in PFC, as well as deficits in executive functions. We aimed to determine whether differences in cortical structure mediate the relationship between executive function and childhood obesity. We analyzed MR-derived measures of cortical thickness for 2700 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years, recruited as part of the NIH Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We related our findings to measures of executive function and body mass index (BMI). In our analysis, increased BMI was associated with significantly reduced mean cortical thickness, as well as specific bilateral reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal cortical regions. This relationship remained after accounting for age, sex, race, parental education, household income, birth-weight, and in-scanner motion. Increased BMI was also associated with lower executive function. Reduced thickness in the rostral medial and superior frontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex partially accounted for reductions in executive function. These results suggest that childhood obesity is associated with compromised executive function. This relationship may be partly explained by BMI-associated reduced cortical thickness in the PFC.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.