Higher body mass index is linked to altered hypothalamic microstructure.

ABSTRACT: Animal studies suggest that obesity-related diets induce structural changes in the hypothalamus, a key brain area involved in energy homeostasis. Whether this translates to humans is however largely unknown. Using a novel multimodal approach with manual segmentation, we here show that a higher body mass index (BMI) selectively predicted higher proton diffusivity within the hypothalamus, indicative of compromised microstructure in the underlying tissue, in a well-characterized population-based cohort (n₁ = 338, 48% females, age 21-78 years, BMI 18-43 kg/m²). Results were independent from confounders and confirmed in another independent sample (n₂ = 236). In addition, while hypothalamic volume was not associated with obesity, we identified a sexual dimorphism and larger

SUBMITTER: Thomas K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6874651 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature