Population-based body-brain mapping links brain morphology and body composition
Authors: Gurholt Tiril P , Kaufmann Tobias , Frei Oleksandr , Alnæs Dag , Haukvik Unn K , van der Meer Dennis , Moberget Torgeir , O’Connell Kevin S , Leinhard Olof D , Linge Jennifer , Simon Rozalyn , Smeland Olav B , Sønderby Ida E , Winterton Adriano , Steen Nils Eiel , Westlye Lars T , Andreassen Ole A 
Published: March 2020

Background

Understanding complex body-brain processes, and putative interplay between adipose tissue and brain health, is of vital importance for brain and somatic disease prevention in the general population. We studied the link between body composition and brain structure through large-scale investigation in a healthy population without secondary disease effects.

Methods

We processed brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and extracted measures of brain morphometry from 19,330 healthy UK Biobank participants, of which a subset (n=2,703) had body MRI. We investigated associations between brain structure and (i) anthropometric body composition measures, and (ii) regional/specific body MRI measures of abdominal fat and muscle tissue.

Findings

We identified highly significant body-brain associations (p-values≤0·0002). Anthropometric measures showed negative, nonlinear, associations with cerebellar/cortical gray matter, and brain stem structures, negative associations with white matter, and positive associations with ventricular volumes. Subcortical structures exhibited mixed effect directionality, with strongest positive association for accumbens. Among body MRI measures, liver fat was negatively associated with thinner/lower cortical gray matter thickness/volume, and thigh muscle volume positively associated with accumbens volume.

Interpretation

We demonstrate significant body-brain associations, and map individual differences in body composition to brain morphology in healthy individuals. Common measures of body composition correlated negatively with cerebellar and cortical structures and positively with the accumbens, a dopamine rich structure involved in reward processing. These findings of a relationship between brain anatomy and body composition provide new insight into body-brain processes and suggest shared mechanisms of cardiometabolic risk factors and brain disorders. This may form the foundation for a new type of prevention studies, and provides a framework for studies of underlying mechanisms related to unhealthy lifestyle and obesity, with implications for public health and prevention.

Funding

The Research Council of Norway, South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme & European Research Council.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Prior studies have indicated an association between brain structure and both obesity and fitness levels - of opposing directionality. Despite this, normal body-brain association patterns in healthy individuals have not been established, and the causal mechanisms are unclear. To enhance our understanding and establish the link between the body and the brain, we saw the need for large-scale investigations in healthy populations. For the study, we searched the PubMed database from March 12th, 2019, through February 25th, 2020, for scientific literature related to adipose tissue, body composition, brain morphology, and body and brain MRI. Search terms included: body fat, adipose tissue, subcutaneous/visceral adipose tissue, liver fat, body composition, anthropometric measures, body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, adiposity, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular, cardiometabolic, disease/disorder, muscle volume, fitness, brain structure, brain morphology, brain MRI, and body MRI. We based the scientific foundation on review studies, meta-analyses, and other larger studies, but generally excluded smaller studies, and thereby lowering the risk of evidential bias such as winner’s curse, although this does not eliminate the risk of publication bias.

Added value of this study

In the largest study, to date, including 19,330 healthy participants without secondary disease effects, we provide insight into normal body-brain processes by identifying body-brain associations that map normally varying body composition to brain morphology.

Implications of all the available evidence

We identified body-brain associations that give insight into normal physiological body-brain processes in healthy individuals, providing a reference point for studies of underlying mechanisms related to unhealthy lifestyle, obesity, and disorders of the body and the brain. Whereas the directionality and causal chain is unknown, these findings have potential implications for public health and disease prevention.