Association between childhood obesity and ERP measures of executive control

Abstract

The worldwide pandemic of childhood obesity is now recognized as a serious public health concern. Several recent studies have indicated that childhood obesity is inversely associated with academic achievement, suggesting that maintaining a healthy weight likely be important for cognitive development. However, evidence regarding such an association between childhood obesity and cognitive function is still scarce, and the findings remain controversial. Accordingly, my colleagues and I examined the association between childhood obesity and behavioral and event-related brain potential measures of higher-order cognitive functions (i.e., executive control), which are thought to be closely associated with academic achievement. This short review describes these studies. Our main findings indicate that childhood obesity is negatively associated with inhibitory control and action monitoring, which are key aspects of executive control.

Keywords

• childhood obesity
• executive control
• inhibitory control
• action monitoring
• academic achievement
• event-related brain potentials (erps)