Sex Commonalities and Differences in Obesity‐Related Alterations in Intrinsic Brain Activity and Connectivity
Open accessAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to characterize obesity‐related sex differences in the intrinsic activity and connectivity of the brain's reward networks. Methods: Eighty‐six women (n = 43) and men (n = 43) completed a 10‐minute resting functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Sex differences and commonalities in BMI‐related frequency power distribution and reward seed‐based connectivity were investigated by using partial least squares analysis. Results: For whole‐brain activity in both men and women, increased BMI was associated with increased slow‐5 activity in the left globus pallidus (GP) and substantia nigra. In women only, increased BMI was associated with increased slow‐4 activity in the right GP and bilateral putamen. For seed‐based connectivity in women, increased BMI was associated with reduced slow‐5 connectivity between the left GP and putamen and the emotion and cortical regulation regions, but in men, increased BMI was associated with increased connectivity with the medial frontal cortex. In both men and women, increased BMI was associated with increased slow‐4 connectivity between the right GP and bilateral putamen and the emotion regulation and sensorimotor‐related regions. Conclusions: The stronger relationship between increased BMI and decreased connectivity of core reward network components with cortical and emotion regulation regions in women may be related to the greater prevalence of emotional eating. The present findings suggest the importance of personalized treatments for obesity that consider the sex of the affected individual.
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Sex‐specific brain alterations have also been reported in obesity and ELA studies.
“sex‐specific brain alterations have also been reported in obesity and ELA studies 11, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57.”
From History of early life adversity is associated with increased food addiction and sex-specific alterations in reward network connectivity in obesity (2019) · cites this paper as [57]
Alterations in reward and emotion regulation regions have been previously demonstrated in individuals with obesity.
“Alterations in reward and emotion regulation regions have been previously demonstrated in individuals with obesity 41, 56, 57.”
From History of early life adversity is associated with increased food addiction and sex-specific alterations in reward network connectivity in obesity (2019) · cites this paper as [57]
The sex differences in food addiction-related centrality are consistent with previous work describing increased post-prandial activations in reward regions in women and somatosensory regions in men.
“These differences are consistent with previous work describing increased post‐prandial activations in reward regions in women and somatosensory regions in men 53, 56, 57, 98, 106, 107, 108, 109.”
From History of early life adversity is associated with increased food addiction and sex-specific alterations in reward network connectivity in obesity (2019) · cites this paper as [57]
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- Authors
- Gupta, A., Mayer, E. A., Labus, J. S., Bhatt, R. R., Ju, T., Love, A., Bal, A., Tillisch, K., Naliboff, B., Sanmiguel, C. P., & Kilpatrick, L. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Ingestive Behavior and Obesity Program Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience Los Angeles California USA
- Corresponding author
- Gupta, Arpana
- ORCID
- Venue
- Obesity
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-12-27
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 340-350
- ISSN
- 1930-7381 (ISSN-L)
- 1930-739X
- PMC
- PMC5783781
- OpenAlex
- W2776762445
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 1.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Obesity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (K23 DK106528, R01 DK048351, P50 DK064539, P30 DK041301)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- sex differences, intrinsic brain activity, brain connectivity, reward network, body mass index, globus pallidus, substantia nigra, putamen, slow oscillations, seed-based functional connectivity, emotional eating, emotion regulation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Obesity, Sex Characteristics
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