• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Study: Higher body mass index (BMI) linked to episodic memory deficits in young adults

March 8, 2016 by SharpBrains

brain_measuretapeObe­si­ty May Wors­en Episod­ic Mem­o­ry, Make It Hard­er To Keep Track Of Cer­tain Events (Med­ical Daily):

“High body mass index (BMI) has been asso­ci­at­ed with cer­tain health risks, which may now include cog­ni­tive impair­ment, accord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary research pub­lished in The Quar­ter­ly Jour­nal of Exper­i­men­tal Psy­chol­o­gy. The study, led by researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, found that young adults who are over­weight may have poor episod­ic mem­o­ry — a weak­ened abil­i­ty to recall past events com­pared to their nor­mal-weight peers…

“Although only a small study, its results sup­port exist­ing find­ings that excess body­weight may be asso­ci­at­ed with changes to the struc­ture and func­tion of the brain and its abil­i­ty to per­form cer­tain cog­ni­tive tasks opti­mal­ly,” researchers wrote..“The pos­si­bil­i­ty that there may be episod­ic mem­o­ry deficits in over­weight indi­vid­u­als is of con­cern, espe­cial­ly giv­en the grow­ing evi­dence that episod­ic mem­o­ry may have a con­sid­er­able influ­ence on feed­ing [behav­ior] and appetite reg­u­la­tion,” Cheke added.

Study: High­er body mass index is asso­ci­at­ed with episod­ic mem­o­ry deficits in young adults (The Quar­ter­ly Jour­nal of Exper­i­men­tal Psychology)

  • Abstract: Obe­si­ty has become an inter­na­tion­al health cri­sis. There is accu­mu­lat­ing evi­dence that excess body­weight is asso­ci­at­ed with changes to the struc­ture and func­tion of the brain and with a num­ber of cog­ni­tive deficits. In par­tic­u­lar, research sug­gests that obe­si­ty is asso­ci­at­ed with hip­pocam­pal and frontal lobe dys­func­tion, which would be pre­dict­ed to impact mem­o­ry. How­ev­er, evi­dence for such mem­o­ry impair­ment is cur­rent­ly lim­it­ed. We hypoth­e­sised that high­er body mass index (BMI) would be asso­ci­at­ed with reduced per­for­mance on a test of episod­ic mem­o­ry that assess­es not only con­tent, but also con­text and fea­ture inte­gra­tion. A total of 50 par­tic­i­pants aged 18–35 years, with BMIs rang­ing from 18 to 51, were test­ed on a nov­el what–where–when style episod­ic mem­o­ry test: the “Trea­sure-Hunt Task”. This test requires rec­ol­lec­tion of object, loca­tion, and tem­po­ral order infor­ma­tion with­in the same par­a­digm, as well as test­ing the abil­i­ty to inte­grate these fea­tures into a sin­gle event rec­ol­lec­tion. High­er BMI was asso­ci­at­ed with sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er per­for­mance on the what–where–when (WWW) mem­o­ry task and all indi­vid­ual ele­ments: object iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, loca­tion mem­o­ry, and tem­po­ral order mem­o­ry. After con­trol­ling for age, sex, and years in edu­ca­tion, the effect of BMI on the indi­vid­ual what, where, and when tasks remained, while the WWW dropped below sig­nif­i­cance. This find­ing of episod­ic mem­o­ry deficits in obe­si­ty is of con­cern giv­en the emerg­ing evi­dence for a role for episod­ic cog­ni­tion in appetite regulation.

To learn more:

  • Judith Beck: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: Appetite regulation, body mass index, cognition, Cognitive-impairment, episodic memory, memory, obesity, What–where–when

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 35,329 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy