The weakened memory function in young overweight people

Abstract

Introduction: Several lines of evidence indicate that being overweight or obese is associated with adverse effects observed at the level of the central nervous system. It was demonstrated that overweight or obese people exhibit lower level of cognitive functions, including the ones dependent on the hippocampus (learning and memory). The majority of studies in this area are concerned with the impact of body mass on the cognitive function in elderly people. Material and methods: We examined the relationship between body mass index and cognitive performance in two groups of young volunteers: overweight (18 males; aged 17 ± 0.18; BMI 26.12 ±0.91) and normal body weight group (27 males; aged 17.12 ± 0.14; BMI 21.55 ± 1.12). To evaluate the cognitive performance in our subjects we used face/ name association test. Results: The mean results in the face name/association test in overweight group were 66.05 ± 6.7%. In normal weight group were was 73.53 ± 6.19% (p<0.005). Moreover, we observed correlation between BMI and face/name association test results (p<0.005). Conclusions: Our data suggest a link between body mass and the level of cognitive performance. We demonstrate that the increased body weight may have a negative effect on some cognitive function even in young people. The potential mechanism for this association remains unclear.