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发帖数: 768 | 1 John Gunstad, an associate professor in Kent State University’s
Department of Psychology, and a team of researchers have discovered a
link between weight loss and improved memory and concentration. The
study shows that bariatric surgery patients exhibited improved memory
function 12 weeks after their operations.
The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of Surgery for
Obesity and Related Diseases, the Official Journal of the American
Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The research report is also
available online at SOARD.
“The initial idea came from our clinical work,” Gunstad said. “I
was working at Brown Medical School in Rhode Island at the time and
had the chance to work with a large number of people who were looking to
lose weight through either behavioral means or weight loss surgery.”
Gunstad said he kept noticing that these patients would make similar
mistakes. “As a neuropsychologist who is focused on how the brain
functions, I look for these little mental errors all the time,” Gunstad
explained.
The research team studied 150 participants (109 bariatric surgery
patients and 41 obese control subjects) at Cornell Medical College and
Weill Columbia University Medical Center, both in New York City, and the
Neuropsychiatric Research Institute in Fargo, N.D. Many bariatric
surgery patients exhibited impaired performance on cognitive testing,
according to the study’s report.
The researchers discovered that bariatric surgery patients
demonstrated improved memory and concentration 12 weeks after surgery,
improving from the slightly impaired range to the normal range.
“The primary motivation for looking at surgery patients is that we know
they lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, so it was a good
group to study,” Gunstad said. “This is the first evidence to show
that by going through this surgery, individuals might improve their
memory, concentration and problem solving.”
Gunstad thinks the study is reason for optimism. “One of the things
about obesity, relative to other medical conditions, is that something
can be done to fix it,” Gunstad said. “Our thought was, if some of
these effects are reversible, then we’re really on to something -- that
it might be an opportunity for individuals who have memory or
concentration problems to make those things better in a short amount
of time. And that’s what we found.”
The team is following study participants for two years. They tested
subjects before surgery, 12 weeks after surgery and one year after
surgery, and will also test at the two-year mark.
Gunstad was the principal investigator for the team, which included
Gladys Strain, Ph.D., of Cornell Medical College in New York City;
Michael Devlin, M.D., of Weill Columbia University Medical Center in New
York City; Rena Wing, Ph.D., and Ronald Cohen, Ph.D., of the Warren
Albert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, R.I.; Robert
Paul, Ph.D., of the University of Missouri-St. Louis in St. Louis,
Miss.; and Ross Crosby, Ph.D., and James Mitchell, M.D., of the
Neuropsychiatric Research Institute in Fargo, N.D.
Gunstad wasn’t surprised by the study’s findings. “A lot of the
factors that come with obesity – things such as high blood pressure,
type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea -- that might damage the brain are
somewhat reversible,” Gunstad said. “As those problems go away, memory
function gets better.”
The team’s next project will examine whether people who experience
behavioral weight loss see the same effects as those who have had
bariatric surgery. Gunstad said he expects to see similar results.
“One of the things we know is that as individuals become more
cardiovascular fit and their heart health gets better, their brain
health also improves,” Gunstad added. “Even if we take young adults
and put them through an exercise program, their memory and their
concentration get better by the end of the program.”
Notes about this neuroscience research
The cost for the research project was approximately $1.5 million, and
was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Health.
Contact: John Gunstad -- Kent State University
Abstract Source: SOARD
Source: Kent State University Press Release
Image Source: Neuroscience News
Neuroscience Video Source: YouTube | r*******c
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