Elsevier

Neurobiology of Aging

Volume 47, November 2016, Pages 63-70
Neurobiology of Aging

Regular article
Obesity associated with increased brain age from midlife

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.07.010Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Common mechanisms in aging and obesity are hypothesized to increase susceptibility to neurodegeneration, however, direct evidence in support of this hypothesis is lacking. We therefore performed a cross-sectional analysis of magnetic resonance image-based brain structure on a population-based cohort of healthy adults. Study participants were originally part of the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) and included 527 individuals aged 20–87 years. Cortical reconstruction techniques were used to generate measures of whole-brain cerebral white-matter volume, cortical thickness, and surface area. Results indicated that cerebral white-matter volume in overweight and obese individuals was associated with a greater degree of atrophy, with maximal effects in middle-age corresponding to an estimated increase of brain age of 10 years. There were no similar body mass index-related changes in cortical parameters. This study suggests that at a population level, obesity may increase the risk of neurodegeneration.

Keywords

Obesity
White-matter volume
Structural MRI
Population-based

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