ArticleTranslational psychiatry2021
Population-based body-brain mapping links brain morphology with anthropometrics and body composition.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the link between body physiology and cognition: the role of the brain and aging.npj aging · 2026Article
- Mapping genetic convergence across brain structure, mental health, and cardiometabolic disease.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Divergent Patterns of Genetic Overlap Between Severe Mental Disorders and Metabolic Markers.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Predicting brain volumes from anthropometric and demographic features: insights from UK biobank neuroimaging data.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- The role of healthy lifestyle in the association between hepatic fibro-inflammation and steatosis and brain aging-a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Soft tissue changes in Dementia: A comprehensive systematic review.Aging brain · 2026Review
- Linking obesity with white matter microstructure highlights the importance of brainstem tracts and sex differences.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Cardiometabolic health and physical robustness map onto distinct patterns of brain structure and neurotransmitter systems.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Mediation Analyses Link Cardiometabolic Factors and Liver Fat With White Matter Hyperintensities and Cognitive Performance: A UK Biobank Study.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Abdominal myosteatosis is associated with lower processing speed in a multiethnic cohort of older adults.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · 2025Article
- Metabolomic insight into the link of intermuscular fat with cognitive performance: the Health ABC Study.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Plasma proteomic analysis of intermuscular fat links muscle integrity with processing speed in older adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Atlas of plasma metabolic markers linked to human brain morphology.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Large-scale brainstem neuroimaging and genetic analyses provide new insights into the neuronal mechanisms of hypertension.HGG advances · 2025Article
- Cardiovascular risk factors modulate the effect of brain imaging-derived phenotypes on ischaemic stroke risk.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Leptin receptor reactivation restores brain function in early-life Lepr-deficient mice.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Interactions between muscle volume and body mass index on brain structure in the UK Biobank.Frontiers in dementia · 2024Article
- Linking sarcopenia, brain structure and cognitive performance: a large-scale UK Biobank study.Brain communications · 2024Article
- Increase in skeletal muscular adiposity and cognitive decline in a biracial cohort of older men and women.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Metabolism-related brain morphology accelerates aging and predicts neurodegenerative diseases and stroke: a UK Biobank study.Translational psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Understanding complex body-brain processes and the interplay between adipose tissue and brain health is important for understanding comorbidity between psychiatric and cardiometabolic disorders. We investigated associations between brain structure and anthropometric and body composition measures using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; n = 24,728) and body MRI (n = 4973) of generally healthy participants in the UK Biobank. We derived regional and global measures of brain morphometry using FreeSurfer and tested their association with (i) anthropometric measures, and (ii) adipose and muscle tissue measured from body MRI. We identified several significant associations with small effect sizes. Anthropometric measures showed negative, nonlinear, associations with cerebellar/cortical gray matter, and brain stem structures, and positive associations with ventricular volumes. Subcortical structures exhibited mixed effect directionality, with strongest positive association for accumbens. Adipose tissue measures, including liver fat and muscle fat infiltration, were negatively associated with cortical/cerebellum structures, while total thigh muscle volume was positively associated with brain stem and accumbens. Regional investigations of cortical area, thickness, and volume indicated widespread and largely negative associations with anthropometric and adipose tissue measures, with an opposite pattern for thigh muscle volume. Self-reported diabetes, hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia were associated with brain structure. The findings provide new insight into physiological body-brain associations suggestive of shared mechanisms between cardiometabolic risk factors and brain health. Whereas the causality needs to be determined, the observed patterns of body-brain relationships provide a foundation for understanding the underlying mechanisms linking psychiatric disorders with obesity and cardiovascular disease, with potential for the development of new prevention strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.