Could Obesity Be Caused by Extra-Small Brain Region?

(Oct. 28) -- Obese teens and lean ones exhibit a key difference in brain composition that might explain either the cause of obesity, or further illuminate a health risk of carrying extra body weight.

In a study of 91 teenagers, 54 of whom were categorized as "obese" according to the body mass index, researchers determined that obesity was related to the size of a brain region implicated in impulsive behavior and self-monitoring.

Those regions were relatively bigger among leaner teenagers, and smaller in obese study participants.

All the study participants were given questionnaires on their eating habits and also underwent MRI brain scans and several cognitive tests meant to evaluate a specific brain region -- the orbitofrontal cortex -- found in the frontal lobe.

Obese teens exhibited more impulsive eating and had smaller orbitofrontal cortexes.

"It's not as simple as kids who have weight problems simply don't have enough willpower to actually lose weight," Dr. Antonio Convit, one of the study's researchers, told LiveScience.

But the study falls short of finding any concrete conclusions and notes that the link is only an association -- not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Furthermore, obesity might actually shrink or harms the cortex, creating a vicious cycle of less and less impulse control with regard to food consumption.

Obesity is already known to spur inflammation in the body, which can damage the brain and impact how well it functions.

A study out of UCLA last year found that the brains of obese participants had "significantly less" tissue than those of individuals at a healthy body weight, and looked 16 years older than their actual age.

The frontal cortex was one of the regions susceptible to tissue loss, according to that research.

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