Adiposity And Arterial Stiffness In Relation To Attentional Inhibition In Children

PURPOSE: Higher adiposity is associated with reduced executive functioning in children and adults, however, the relationship of adiposity and arterial health and its effect on cognition among children remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between adiposity, arterial health, and cognitive function in children. We hypothesized that lower adiposity and arterial stiffness would relate to better performance on an attentional inhibition task. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 68 children (35 female, M age = 10.01 ± 2.49 years).Total percentage of body fat percentage (%BF) was assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Arterial stiffness (indexed as carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) was measured through applanation tonometry with the SphygmoCor® device and Xcel software. A modified Eriksen flanker task was employed to assess attentional inhibition. The associations between attentional inhibition, %BF, and cfPWV (m/s) were inspected via bivariate correlations. Following initial inspection, multiple linear regressions were employed to analyze significant main and interaction effects between participant %BF and cfPWV after adjusting for covariates (i.e., age, sex, annual household income). RESULTS: Behavioral performance indicated average congruent accuracy as 79.82 ± 24.01% and 68.42 ± 24.62% for the incongruent condition. Mean congruent reaction time (RT) was 563.99 ± 160.38 ms, while mean incongruent RT was 622.24 ± 164.09 ms. Total %BF (21.75 ± 8.23%) was positively associated (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) with average cfPWV (4.38 ± 0.57 m/s). There were no significant main effects between %BF, cfPWV, and congruent and incongruent accuracy. %BF was positively associated with congruent (r = 0.21, p = 0.05) and incongruent RT (r = 0.28, p = 0.04). and the interaction effect between %BF and cfPWV indicated a signIficant positive relationship with incongruent (b = 0.681, p = 0.028) and not congruent RT. CONCLUSION: As expected, the interaction higher adiposity was associated with greater arterial stiffness; however, arterial stiffness was not related to attentional inhibition. Further research is needed to understand the influence of adipose tissue on arterial stiffness and the interactive effect on cognitive functioning from early- to late-childhood.