The cognitive deficits is associated with higher body mass index

Abstract

Obesity and overweight which have been tied to changes in the structural integrity of the blood-brain barrier, neuroinflammation, glucoregulation and decreased levels of neurotrophins, impacting structures in the central nervous system including some of the limbic system and prefrontal cortex related with cognitive deficit processes with perceiving, attending, memorizing, remembering and thinking, those involved in human behavior and learning. This research was mainly aimed at finding if there are alterations of cognitive processes: executive function, inhibitory control and working memory in undergraduate students diagnosed with normal weight, overweight and obesity.
An observational, prospective, transversal and analytical study was performed on a sampling fee of 57 undergraduate students grouped into 3 categories based on Body Mass Index (BMI) of the FES Zaragoza, UNAM. The evaluation was done with neuropsychological tests taken from Neuropsi attention and memory, a significant decrease in the scores on the assessment deficit ranges from mild to severe of working memory in patients with BMI ≥25 compared with subjects with 18.5 to 24.9 BMI.