New MRI data offers clues related the development of obesity in men and women, revealing the presence of different neurological drivers between the sexes.
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles combined multimodal brain MRIs with clinical and personal data from 183 men and women to identify sex-specific brain signatures that could be indicative of what causes a person to develop obesity. For example, the team found that women more often have alterations in connectivity that are associated traumatic experiences or early life adversity; these signatures could indicate that women are more prone to anxiety and emotional eating in comparison to their male counterparts, the team concluded.
These and other findings were published recently in Brain Communications.
“We found differences in several of the brain’s networks associated with early life adversity, mental health quality, and the way sensory stimulation is experienced. The resulting brain signatures, based on multimodal MRI imaging, may help us more precisely tailor obesity interventions based on an individual’s sex,” explained senior author of the new study Arpana Gupta, PhD, a brain, obesity and microbiome researcher at UCLA.
For the study, participants completed a thorough self-assessment of their mental, physical and emotional health before undergoing three different MRI scans to evaluate the structure, function and connectivity of their brain. Experts then input the combined imaging and clinical data into an analytical tool that identifies a small number of variables to predict outcomes.
Through this, the team identified sex-specific differences in several areas, including the cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamic-cortical loop, the choroid plexus-cerebrospinal fluid system, salience, sensorimotor and default-mode networks.
These findings aligned with the self-reported adversity and mental health quality questionnaires completed by participants. Women were found to be more apt to compulsive eating, while men appeared to respond more to physiological triggers.
“Although causality is unknown, the strong associations between clinical markers, such as anxiety, depression, obesity and neural signatures suggest the importance of the bidirectional mechanistic connection of the gut-brain axis,” the authors said.
Understanding signatures that are unique to men and women can help clinicians to tailor treatment addressing the root cause of what drives someone to overeat, the team suggested.
The study abstract is available here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.