Adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function among adults with excess adiposity

Abstract

Summary Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and obesity are independently associated with brain/neurocognitive health. Despite a growing emphasis on the importance of early life adversity on health, the relationship between ACEs and neurocognition in adults with overweight/obesity is unclear. The objective was to examine associations between self‐reported ACEs and measured neurocognitive domains in a sample of adults with overweight/obesity. Methods Participants were 95 predominantly white, highly educated adult women (76% female, 81% Caucasian, and 75% ≥ bachelor's degree) with excess adiposity enrolled in the Cognitive and Self‐regulatory Mechanisms of Obesity Study. ACEs and fluid/crystallized neurocognitive domains were measured at baseline using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale and the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery and Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric, respectively. Results Higher ACEs scores were negatively correlated with fluid cognition (r = −.34, P < .001) but not crystallized cognition (r = .01, ns). Individuals with 3 and 4+ ACEs displayed significantly lower fluid cognition scores than those with fewer ACEs F4,89 = 3.24, P < .05. After accounting for body mass index (BMI), age, sex, race, and education, higher ACEs scores were still associated with poorer performance on overall fluid cognition (β = −.36, P < .01), along with the following subtests: Stroop Colour/Word test (β = −.23, P < .05), Go/No‐Go omissions (β = .29, P < .01), and Picture Sequence Memory task (β = −.30, P < .01). Conclusions The role of ACEs in health may be related to their associations with executive function and episodic neurocognitive domains essential to cognitive processing and self‐regulation. Obesity science should further examine the role of ACEs and neurocognition in obesity prevention, prognosis, and treatment using more rigorous, prospective designs and more diverse samples.

Associations between adverse childhood experiences and history of weight cycling

“…Knowing whether ACEs drive some of this propensity for gaining excess weight that is treatment‐resistant would be useful. Previous work suggested that higher ACEs were linked to higher BMIs and greater abdominal adiposity in a treatment‐seeking sample of adults with overweight/obesity 45 . The present study expands these results by examining the associations between a history of self‐reported ACEs and weight cycling.…”

“…Previous work suggested that higher ACEs were linked to higher BMIs and greater abdominal adiposity in a treatment-seeking sample of adults with overweight/obesity. 45 The present study expands these results by examining the associations between a history of selfreported ACEs and weight cycling. It is hypothesized that persons with higher ACE scores would be more likely to endorse a history of weight cycling.…”

The Mediating Role of Cardiometabolic Dysregulation on the Relation Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Cognition

“…Consistent with our first hypothesis, a greater frequency of ACEs was significantly associated with the severity of an individual’s cardiometabolic dysregulation. The alterations on the structure and function of biological and neuroendocrine systems as a consequence of frequent or severe ACEs have been postulated to be the result of dysfunctional glucocorticoid receptor stimulation (4). Specifically, as a normal consequence of stress, the glucocorticoid receptor signaling pathway stimulates the production of multiple cardiometabolic biomarkers such as glucose, triglycerides, and elevated blood pressure (5,6).…”

“…The injurious effects of ACEs begin to arise when children are exposed to prolonged or frequent distressing events, such as emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse, neglect, financial strain, loss of a parent, and/or household dysfunction in the form of parental divorce or household substance abuse (2). Research shows that ACEs can lead to the development of a toxic stress response, which in turn can affect an individual’s physiology at a cellular level (3), resulting in chronic cognitive impairments in later life, specifically in the domains of fluid cognition and episodic memory (4). However, relatively little research has examined potential biological pathways linking ACEs and cognition in adults.…”

The heart of the matter: Developing the whole child through community resources and caregiver relationships

“…Executive function includes cognitive processes, such as working memory and flexibility, that are important for maintaining goal-directed behaviors and are related to outcomes such as academic performance (Cortés Pascual, Moyano Muñoz, & Quílez Robres, 2019). ACEs are associated with lower executive functioning skills in children and adults (Hawkins et al, 2020;Kalia & Knauft, 2020;Kopetz et al, 2019;Lambert, King, Monahan, & McLaughlin, 2017), as well as altered functioning in brain regions related to cognitive control (Hallowell et al, 2019;Lu et al, 2017;Philip et al, 2013Philip et al, , 2016.…”