Obesity Alters Brain Structure and Function

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Researchers have found a new link between obesity and memory deficits. Lucy Cheke and colleagues held a "treasure hunt" in which participants had to remember where they buried their treasure. Cheke found that the participants who were overweight or obese had a more difficult time remembering where their treasures were. Being overweight can not only impact one's memory, but memory impairments can also lead to weight gain. Further studies presented in the article show that those who did not have vivid memories of their previous meal tended to eat more during their next one. Because of these findings, researchers have developed a cell phone app to help people pay closer attention to what they are eating in hopes to help them reduce their intake and slim down.

In class we started talking about hunger and eating, so I found this article to add just a little bit more to what we discussed. It brings up a good point about the actual psychology behind obesity, memory. and eating in general. When I started reading, I was actually mindlessly snacking but once I got to the section about paying attention to what/how much you're eating, I started doing just that and was able to stop myself from eating a lot.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2016/nov/23/obesity-alters-brain-structure-and-function

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 28, 2016 at 6:11 PM

    This is very interesting to me because I tend to be there type of person who is always hungry! It makes sense to me after reading this that memory impairments could lead to weight gain because of forgetting that you have already eaten, but I never thought about the fact that being overweight can impact memory. I think the cell phone app could be very useful helping people track what they have eaten. However, if the app doesn't alert a person in some way, it may not be extremely useful because it is likely that they would not even remember to go look at the app.

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  2. LaurenHoffmanTUNovember 28, 2016 at 9:26 PM

    There are so many articles out there about obesity and this is by far the most interesting. I never would have thought that there could be some sort of correlation between being overweight and a persons memory.

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  3. UnknownNovember 28, 2016 at 9:38 PM

    Thanh Duong

    This was an interesting read cause I never thought obesity would be linked to memory loss. I tend to be a person who would eat at different times of the day when I just go to the pantry to pull some snacks and it does make sense that memory impairment could lead to gaining weight because you forgot that you have already eaten probably 10 mins from a dinner meal or lunch. For me, I have some lapse that my memory was impaired a couple of times because after eating lunch or dinner, 20 mins I would grab a snack without realizing I have already eaten the meal i had earlier. So I can relate to this article. I'm more interested in thinking how we could lessen the chance to improve memory and lessen the chance for obesity and reverse this epidemic affecting our society as a whole. Also, this relates to our class because before our Thanksgiving break, we learned about hunger and how it transmit signals to the brain and how it affects different type of organs that are in the process and how our body reacts. Great article and great read. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dani SlebzakNovember 28, 2016 at 10:21 PM

    I remain skeptical of the relationship between excess fat and memory function. I wonder if the relationship between the two in the study this article discusses is more or less correlational and not so much causal. The idea that memory loss causes obesity is also discussed so would it be possible to find a true "root" to the issue of memory loss or obesity? This begins to look like a "chicken and egg" paradox when these terms are discussed.
    However, if there is some hormonal differences that can lead to either obesity or memory loss, and both interact with one another, then perhaps further research can be done to support a more causal relationship between the two.

    ReplyDelete
  5. MarcusMNovember 29, 2016 at 2:48 AM

    Very interesting. it applies to an article I read on alzheimers and inflammation in the brain from a toxic protein. Obesity seems to go hand in hand with this.

    ReplyDelete

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