Cortical thickness and childhood eating behaviors: differences according to sex and age, and relevance for eating disorders

• Published in: Eating and weight disorders 2024-07, Vol.29 (1), p.47-10, Article 47
• Main Authors: Breton, Edith, Khundrakpam, Budhachandra, Jeon, Seun, Evans, Alan, Booij, Linda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Brain cortical thickness; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - pathology; Child; Child Behavior - psychology; Child development; Childhood; Eating behavior; Eating disorder/etiology; Emotions - physiology; Feeding and eating disorders; Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neuroimaging; Psychiatry; Sex; Sex Factors
• ISSN: 1590-1262; 1124-4909; 1590-1262
• DOI: 10.1007/s40519-024-01675-3

Purpose This study investigated the association between childhood eating behaviors and cortical morphology, in relation to sex and age, in a community sample. Methods Neuroimaging data of 71 children (mean age = 9.9 ± 1.4 years; 39 boys/32 girls) were obtained from the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample. Emotional overeating, food fussiness, and emotional undereating were assessed using the Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Cortical thickness was obtained at 81,924 vertices covering the entire cortex. Generalized Linear Mixed Models were used for statistical analysis. Results There was a significant effect of sex in the association between cortical thickness and emotional overeating (localized at the right postcentral and bilateral superior parietal gyri). Boys with more emotional overeating presented cortical thickening, whereas the opposite was observed in girls ( p