TY - JOUR
T1 - Frontal attentional responses to food size are abnormal in obese subjects
T2 - An electroencephalographic study
AU - Babiloni, Claudio
AU - Del Percio, Claudio
AU - Valenzano, Anna
AU - Marzano, Nicola
AU - De Rosas, Mario
AU - Petito, Annamaria
AU - Bellomo, Antonello
AU - Rossi, Giuseppe
AU - Lecce, Brunello
AU - Mundi, Ciro
AU - Lizio, Roberta
AU - Eusebi, Fabrizio
AU - Cibelli, Giuseppe
PY - 2009/8
Y1 - 2009/8
N2 - Objective: Are obese subjects characterized by a reduction of attentional cortical responses to the enlargement of food or body images? Methods: Electroencephalographic data were recorded in 19 obese and 15 normal-weight adults during an "oddball" paradigm. The subjects were given frequent (70%) and rare (30%) stimuli depicting faces (FACE), food (FOOD), and landscapes (CONTROL), and clicked the mouse after the rare stimuli. These stimuli depicted the same frequent stimuli graphically dilated by 25% along the horizontal axis. Bioelectrical impedance indexed subjects' body fat percentage. Cortical attentional responses were probed by the difference between positive event-related potentials peaking around 400-500 ms post-stimulus for the rare minus frequent stimuli (P300). Low resolution electromagnetic source tomography (LORETA) estimated P300 sources. Results: In the FOOD condition, the amplitude of medial prefrontal P300 sources (Brodmann area 9) was lower in the obese than normal-weight subjects, and there was a negative correlation between the body fat percentage and the amplitude of these sources in all subjects as a single group. Conclusions: These results disclose that prefrontal attentional processes to food size are abnormal in obese subjects. Significance: The present study motivates future research evaluating the effects of cognitive rehabilitation in obese subjects.
AB - Objective: Are obese subjects characterized by a reduction of attentional cortical responses to the enlargement of food or body images? Methods: Electroencephalographic data were recorded in 19 obese and 15 normal-weight adults during an "oddball" paradigm. The subjects were given frequent (70%) and rare (30%) stimuli depicting faces (FACE), food (FOOD), and landscapes (CONTROL), and clicked the mouse after the rare stimuli. These stimuli depicted the same frequent stimuli graphically dilated by 25% along the horizontal axis. Bioelectrical impedance indexed subjects' body fat percentage. Cortical attentional responses were probed by the difference between positive event-related potentials peaking around 400-500 ms post-stimulus for the rare minus frequent stimuli (P300). Low resolution electromagnetic source tomography (LORETA) estimated P300 sources. Results: In the FOOD condition, the amplitude of medial prefrontal P300 sources (Brodmann area 9) was lower in the obese than normal-weight subjects, and there was a negative correlation between the body fat percentage and the amplitude of these sources in all subjects as a single group. Conclusions: These results disclose that prefrontal attentional processes to food size are abnormal in obese subjects. Significance: The present study motivates future research evaluating the effects of cognitive rehabilitation in obese subjects.
KW - Electroencephalography (EEG)
KW - Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA)
KW - Normal-weight subjects
KW - Obese subjects
KW - P300
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U2 - 10.1016/j.clinph.2009.06.012
DO - 10.1016/j.clinph.2009.06.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 19616997
AN - SCOPUS:68349096230
VL - 120
SP - 1441
EP - 1448
JO - Clinical Neurophysiology
JF - Clinical Neurophysiology
SN - 1388-2457
IS - 8
ER -