The differential relationship of an afterschool physical activity intervention on brain function and cognition in children with obesity and their normal weight peers

Abstract

SummaryBackgroundPhysical activity (PA) is beneficial for cognitive and brain health during preadolescence. Given that childhood obesity (OB) is a public health concern, investigating this effect in children with OB is an important societal consideration.ObjectivesTo identify the effects of weight status and PA on neuroelectric indices of executive function in preadolescence.MethodsChildren were randomly assigned to a PA intervention or a wait‐list control group and completed a task that manipulated inhibitory control, while task performance and neuroelectric (P3 component) outcomes were assessed. About 103 children with OB were matched to a sample of 103 normal weight (NW) children based on treatment allocation and demographic variables.ResultsChildren with OB in the control group demonstrated reduced P3 amplitude from pre‐ to post‐test, meanwhile those with OB in the PA intervention maintained P3 amplitude at post‐test compared to pre‐test. Additionally, NW children in the PA intervention group showed that decreased visceral adipose tissue corresponded with faster task performance, a relationship not observed in children with OB.ConclusionsThese results suggest that a 9‐month PA intervention may be particularly beneficial to the cognitive and brain health of children with OB. These results are important to consider given the public health concerns associated with childhood OB.

The Role of Chronic Physical Activity in Alleviating the Detrimental Relationship of Childhood Obesity on Brain and Cognition

“…Higher speed-agility fitness was also associated with shorter P3 latency during a working memory task, indicating faster stimulus processing speed (Mora-Gonzalez et al, 2019b). The positive association of aerobic fitness and motor-coordination with the P3-ERP is supported by findings from a 9-month RCT where overweight or obese children who underwent an aerobic-and motor coordination-based intervention showed sustained P3 amplitude over time, along with sustained inhibitory control performance, whereas overweight or obese children in the waitlist control group showed decreased P3 amplitude from pre-to posttest despite no change in task performance (Logan et al, 2021). Such findings corroborate cross-sectional data which suggest that physical activity may be relevant to maintain brain functioning during inhibitory control in children with overweight or obesity.…”

“…Despite the known negative effects of obesity on brain, cognition, and academic performance in children, there is a growing body of evidence supporting physical activity as an effective means to counteract, in part, obesity-related impairments during childhood Krafft et al, 2014c;Liu et al, 2018;Logan et al, 2021;Raine et al, 2017). Physical activity refers to any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure (Donnelly et al, 2016).…”

“…While we have learned much over the years about the relationship of physical activity and fitness on cognitive and brain health in children with overweight or obesity, there are still many questions worth investigating. First, the majority of studies in this line of research only recruited overweight and/or obese children, with only four studies additionally recruiting normal weight children for comparison (Crova et al, 2014;Gallotta et al, 2015;Logan et al, 2021;Raine et al, 2017). Preliminary findings have pointed to differential modulations of physical activity to behavioral (Crova et al, 2014) and neuroelectric outcomes of inhibitory control in overweight and obese children (Logan et al, 2021), such that physical activity has larger effects in overweight and obese children than their normal-weight peers (Crova et al, 2014;Logan et al, 2021).…”

“…First, the majority of studies in this line of research only recruited overweight and/or obese children, with only four studies additionally recruiting normal weight children for comparison (Crova et al, 2014;Gallotta et al, 2015;Logan et al, 2021;Raine et al, 2017). Preliminary findings have pointed to differential modulations of physical activity to behavioral (Crova et al, 2014) and neuroelectric outcomes of inhibitory control in overweight and obese children (Logan et al, 2021), such that physical activity has larger effects in overweight and obese children than their normal-weight peers (Crova et al, 2014;Logan et al, 2021). More research focusing on other subdomains of cognition are needed to better elucidate the moderating role of obesity/adiposity.…”

“…According to a worldwide report across 49 countries in 2018, approximately 75% of school children are considered physically inactive (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, 2018), and a few studies have linked sedentarism with obesity and poorer cortical integrity during maturation (Zavala-Crichton et al, 2020). Importantly, intervention data, including randomized controlled trials (RCT), have indicated that physical activity decreases adiposity (Logan et al, 2021;Raine et al, 2017) and alleviates the detrimental influence of adiposity on cognition and brain function in children with overweight and obesity, particularly higher-order aspects of cognition including attention, executive function, and planning/decision making Krafft et al, 2014c;Liu et al, 2018;Logan et al, 2021;Raine et al, 2017). Cross-sectional evidence in children with overweight and obesity has further indicated an association of increased fitness with better academic performance, an overall measure of neurocognitive health and integrity that provides insight into real-world cognitive performance (Cadenas-Sanchez et al, 2020b;Davis & Cooper, 2011;García-Hermoso et al, 2021).…”