The results confirmed the presence of a relation between executive functions and overweight/obesity , although the directionality of this relation was not clear ; nor did any single executive function emerge as being more involved than others in this relation .
Despite this , there was evidence of a reciprocal influence between executive functions and overweight/obesity .
Conclusions : This systematic review underlines the presence of a relationship between executive functions and overweight/obesity .
Moreover , it seems to suggest a bidirectional trend in this relationship that could be the cause of the failure of interventions for weight reduction .
Background : The increasing incidence of people affected by overweight or obesity is a significant health problem .
The knowledge of the factors which influences the inappropriate eating behaviors causing excessive body fat is an essential goal for the research .
Overweight and obesity are significant risk factors for many health diseases , such as cardiovascular problems , diabetes .
Recently , many studies have focused on the relationship between body weight and cognitive processes .
Objectives : This systematic review is aim ed to investigate the existence and the nature of the relationship between excessive body weight ( overweight/obesity ) and executive functions , analyzing cross-sectional , and longitudinal studies in order to verify the evidence of a possible causality between these variables .
Fasting biases brain reward systems towards high-calorie foods.
Nutritional state ( e.g. fasted vs. fed ) and different food stimuli ( e.g. high-calorie vs. low-calorie , or appetizing vs. bl and foods ) are both recognized to change activity in brain reward systems . Using functional magnetic resonance imaging , we have studied the interaction between nutritional state and different food stimuli on brain food reward systems . We examined how blood oxygen level-dependent activity within a priori regions of interest varied while viewing pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie foods . Pictures of non-food household objects were included as control stimuli . During scanning , subjects rated the appeal of each picture . Twenty non-obese healthy adults [ body mass index 22.1 + /- 0.5 kg/m(2 ) ( mean + /- SEM ) , age range 19 - 35 years , 10 male ] were scanned on two separate mornings between 11:00 and 12:00 h , once after eating a filling breakfast ( ' fed ' : 1.6 + /- 0.1 h since breakfast ) , and once after an overnight fast but skipping breakfast ( ' fasted ' : 15.9 + /- 0.3 h since supper ) in a r and omized cross-over design . Fasting selectively increased activation to pictures of high-calorie over low-calorie foods in the ventral striatum , amygdala , anterior insula , and medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex ( OFC ) . Furthermore , fasting enhanced the subjective appeal of high-calorie more than low-calorie foods , and the change in appeal bias towards high-calorie foods was positively correlated with medial and lateral OFC activation . These results demonstrate an interaction between homeostatic and hedonic aspects of feeding behaviour , with fasting biasing brain reward systems towards high-calorie foods
The results confirmed the presence of a relation between executive functions and overweight/obesity , although the directionality of this relation was not clear ; nor did any single executive function emerge as being more involved than others in this relation .
Despite this , there was evidence of a reciprocal influence between executive functions and overweight/obesity .
Conclusions : This systematic review underlines the presence of a relationship between executive functions and overweight/obesity .
Moreover , it seems to suggest a bidirectional trend in this relationship that could be the cause of the failure of interventions for weight reduction .
Background : The increasing incidence of people affected by overweight or obesity is a significant health problem .
The knowledge of the factors which influences the inappropriate eating behaviors causing excessive body fat is an essential goal for the research .
Overweight and obesity are significant risk factors for many health diseases , such as cardiovascular problems , diabetes .
Recently , many studies have focused on the relationship between body weight and cognitive processes .
Objectives : This systematic review is aim ed to investigate the existence and the nature of the relationship between excessive body weight ( overweight/obesity ) and executive functions , analyzing cross-sectional , and longitudinal studies in order to verify the evidence of a possible causality between these variables .