Sonya Kaur1, Stephanie Oleson1, Evan Pasha2, Carolyn Cassill1, Hirofumi Tanaka2, and Andreana Haley1
1Psychology, University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX, United States, 2Kinesiology, University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX, United States
The number of individuals classified as obese or overweight has doubled in the last two decades . In addition to documented effects of obesity on physical health, obesity is also associated with significantly deleterious effects on the brain, including increased risk for dementia. It has been hypothesized that the negative effects of obesity on central nervous system functioning are driven by visceral fat, which is metabolically active. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship are poorly understood. Here, we propose to directly test the role of systemic inflammation as a mediator of the relationship between visceral fat and brain structure in middle aged adults
