"The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than their healthy counterparts while [those of] overweight people looked 8 years older," said UCLA neuroscientist Paul Thompson, senior author of a study published online in Human Brain Mapping.
Much of the lost tissue was in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain, the seat of decision-making and memory, among other things.
It is not clear whether weight gain caused a reduction in brain tissue, or if a smaller brain contributes to weight gain, or there are other factors contributing to both. http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/08/25/as-waistlines-widen-brains-shrink.html -via Lifehacker
(image credit: Flickr user erat)
It's annoying how the press picks up any tiny study of this nature and goes around declaring it as solid fact. What foolishness.
It's days like this I sarcastically remark on how great it is to be a human being in this enlightened day and age. I'm not saying we shouldn't be asking these questions, of course, but the response to the most insignificant of data is always so extreme, and so extremely depressing. People are only skeptical when they don't like the results.
However, once I changed my diet and exercise, as I've started to loose weight, I've noticed my cognitive functions have improved.
Perhaps it's all unrelated though.
Medical studies should consist of way more subjects than the number of people who attend the average wedding.
It's like the study that "showed" gamers aren't typical adolescents. When you read the study, it only interviewed people 19 and older.
Absolute crap, but the facts of it get lost in the story. "FAT PEOPLE WILL ROT THEIR BRAINS! HEHEHE! POINT AND LAUGH AT THE FAT PEOPLE" when there are a million other factors in play.