Effect of Obesity on Arithmetic Processing in Preteens With High and Low Math Skills: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Graciela C Alatorre-Cruz; Heather Downs; Darcy Hagood; Seth T Sorensen; D Keith Williams; Linda J Larson-Prior

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2022.760234

Effect of Obesity on Arithmetic Processing in Preteens With High and Low Math Skills: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 Mar 10:16:760234. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.760234. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Graciela C Alatorre-Cruz^{1

2}, Heather Downs², Darcy Hagood², Seth T Sorensen^{1

2}, D Keith Williams³, Linda J Larson-Prior^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States.
² Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, Little Rock, AR, United States.
³ Vice Chair for Education, Department of Biostatistics, Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, Little Rock, AR, United States.
⁴ Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, and Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States.

Abstract

Preadolescence is an important period for the consolidation of certain arithmetic facts, and the development of problem-solving strategies. Obese subjects seem to have poorer academic performance in math than their normal-weight peers, suggesting a negative effect of obesity on math skills in critical developmental periods. To test this hypothesis, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected during a delayed-verification math task using simple addition and subtraction problems in obese [above 95th body mass index (BMI) percentile] and non-obese (between 5th and 90th BMI percentile) preteens with different levels of math skill; thirty-one with low math skills (14 obese, mean BMI = 26.40, 9.79 years old; 17 non-obese, BMI = 17.45, 9.76 years old) and thirty-one with high math skills (15 obese, BMI = 26.90, 9.60 years old; 16 non-obese, BMI = 17.13, 9.63 years old). No significant differences between weight groups were observed in task accuracy regardless of their mathematical skill level. For ERPs, electrophysiological differences were found only in the subtraction condition; participants with obesity showed an electrophysiologic pattern associated with a reduced ability to allocate attention resources regardless of their math skill level, these differences were characterized by longer P300 latency than their normal-weight peers. Moreover, the participants with obesity with high math skills displayed hypoactivity in left superior parietal lobule compared with their normal-weight peers. Additionally, obese preteens with low math skills displayed smaller arithmetic N400 amplitude than non-obese participants, reflecting difficulties in retrieving visual, semantic, and lexical information about numbers. We conclude that participants with obesity are less able than their normal-weight peers to deploy their attention regardless of their behavioral performance, which seems to have a greater effect on obese participants with low math skills because they also show problems in the retrieval of solutions from working memory, resulting in a delay in the development of mathematical skills.

Keywords: P300; arithmetic N400; math skills; obesity; preteens.