Association Between Genetic Risks for Obesity and Working Memory in Children

Associations of Prenatal Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Working Memory: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

OBJECTIVE

To determine if prenatal socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with childhood working memory (WM), we constructed a more precise, integrative measure of WM using variables from multiple tasks that may provide a more representative measure of WM.

STUDY DESIGN

We used data from a prospective birth cohort study in Mexico City, Mexico, with N = 515 children aged 6-9 years. Prenatal SES was measured using the Mexican Association of Marketing Research and Public Opinion Agencies (AMAI) index. We created a latent variable for nonverbal working memory using multiple tasks (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery spatial working memory, operant chamber Delayed Match to Sample and Incremental Repeated Acquisition). Structural equation models were used to assess associations between prenatal SES and nonverbal working memory, adjusting for child demographics (e.g., age and sex), prenatal exposures (e.g., exposures to lead, arsenic, and secondhand smoke), and family (current SES, maternal IQ) variables.

RESULTS

Children had a mean age of 6.6 years [SD 0.6], and 50.5% were boys. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we constructed a latent variable of nonverbal working memory, which was measurement invariant across child sex. Prenatal SES was associated with childhood nonverbal working memory (standardized factor loading = 0.17; p = 0.004). These associations were modified by child sex. Higher prenatal SES was significantly associated with higher childhood WM in females (standardized factor loading = 0.26; p = 0.002), but not in males.

CONCLUSIONS

Prenatal socioeconomic status is a predictor of childhood working memory, but it may be a stronger predictor for girls compared with for boys.

The utility of obesity polygenic risk scores from research to clinical practice: A review

Obesity represents a major public health emergency worldwide, and its etiology is shaped by a complex interplay of environmental and genetic factors. Over the last decade, polygenic risk scores (PRS) have emerged as a promising tool to quantify an individual's genetic risk of obesity. The field of PRS in obesity genetics is rapidly evolving, shedding new lights on obesity mechanisms and holding promise for contributing to personalized prevention and treatment. Challenges persist in terms of its clinical integration, including the need for further validation in large-scale prospective cohorts, ethical considerations, and implications for health disparities. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of PRS for studying the genetics of obesity, spanning from methodological nuances to clinical applications and challenges. We summarize the latest developments in the generation and refinement of PRS for obesity, including advances in methodologies for aggregating genome-wide association study data and improving PRS predictive accuracy, and discuss limitations that need to be overcome to fully realize its potential benefits of PRS in both medicine and public health.

Children at high familial risk for obesity show executive functioning deficits prior to development of excess weight status

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to determine whether children with healthy weight who vary by familial risk for obesity differ in executive functioning.

METHODS

Children (age 7-8 years) without obesity (n = 93, 52% male) who differed by familial risk for obesity (based on maternal weight status) completed go/no-go and stop-signal tasks to assess inhibitory control and an N-back task to assess working memory. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry measured adiposity. Linear and mixed-effect models assessed unique effects and relative importance analysis-quantified relative effects of familial risk and percent body fat.

RESULTS

Children at high compared with low familial risk showed worse inhibitory control; however, child adiposity was not associated with inhibitory control. Both high familial risk and greater child adiposity were associated with worse N-back performance when cognitive demand was high (2-back), but not low (0- and 1-back). The relative effect of familial risk on executive functioning was 2.7 to 16 times greater than the relative effect of percent body fat.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide initial evidence that deficits in executive functioning may precede the development of obesity in children at high familial risk for this disease. Additional family risk studies are needed to elucidate the pathways through which maternal obesity influences child executive functioning and risk for obesity.