Neural Correlates of Obesity Illness Awareness from fMRI Pilot Study

An exploratory pilot fMRI study investigates brain activity related to impaired illness awareness in 26 participants with obesity. The analysis focuses on blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses in regions of interest including the posterior parietal area and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during a tailored subjective awareness task. Data includes participant demographics, BMI, and task accuracy for grouping into impaired versus intact awareness cohorts.

Use Cases

• Analyze correlations between BOLD response in the left PPA and participant grouping based on obesity awareness task accuracy (≤80% vs >80%).
• Examine the relationship between participant BMI (mean 37.4) and fMRI activation patterns during the illness awareness paradigm.
• Model brain activation differences, controlling for age and gender variables, between the 14 impaired and 12 intact awareness participants.
• Investigate task-specific BOLD responses to 'yes/agree' or 'no/disagree' obesity-related stimuli within the defined regions of interest.

Strengths

• Includes fMRI and behavioral data from 26 clinically characterized participants.
• Provides specific metrics: mean BMI of 37.4 (SD 5.1) and a 75% female cohort.
• Focuses on predefined neuroanatomical regions of interest (PPA, dlPFC, insula) for hypothesis testing.

Limitations

• Small sample size of 26 participants limits statistical power and generalizability.
• Exploratory pilot design requires future replication for conclusive findings.
• Data is contained in a 68.1 KB DOCX file, indicating a summary document rather than a raw numerical dataset.

Provenance

Source

Author Jianmeng Song via figshare.

Collection Method

Data collected from an individually tailored subjective obesity awareness task performed during fMRI scanning.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.