Early life factors and brain health in childhoodThe ActiveBrains project

Résumé

Background Early life environment has shown to have an impact on future physical health outcomes, which is known as early life programming, and it may also influence brain health later in life. Purpose The present doctoral thesis aimed to study the association of early life factors, including indicators of the prenatal period (i.e., birth weight and birth length) and breastfeeding practices, with brain health in overweight/obese children, and its implication in academic performance. Specifically, this doctoral thesis investigated the association of early life factors with gray matter volumes (Study 1), white matter microstructure (Study 2), structural brain networks (Study 3), and resting state functional connectivity of hippocampus (Study 4). Overall conclusion Early life factors are associated with brain structure and function in overweight/obese children, although its implications on academic performance are not observed in this thesis. The results of the present doctoral thesis expand the understanding of the early life programming on brain health in children with overweight/obesity.