Metabolism, Obesity, and Brain Health Across the Lifespan

Following up on the success of the Nutrients and Brain: From Bench to the Bedside, we are pleased to announce the launch of this update as Volume II.Recently, there has been increasing interest in exploring the role of diet and its components, including dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet, in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Several of these components have been traditionally considered as protective factors against cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, arteriosclerotic processes, stroke, and cognitive disorders such as vascular dementia. However, while many studies have found a protective role on cardio- and cerebrovascular risk factors, data about their role on systemic or brain subclinical vascular damage remain limited. Moreover, their relationship with clinical symptoms—or their impact on neuropsychological or neurophysiological profiles in the context of cerebrovascular disorders—is still unclear.In parallel, growing evidence links obesity and metabolic dysregulation (e.g., insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, and related inflammatory pathways) to vascular dysfunction and brain health outcomes across the lifespan. The need for an early diagnosis has focused on identifying biological and instrumental markers of disease process and progression, including markers of subclinical vascular damage. However, there is still no consensus regarding dose-response effects of dietary factors, obesity-related and metabolic factors, or their interaction on subclinical vascular markers, cognition, mood, or other neurological manifestations. Therefore, identifying new and possibly modifiable protective or risk factors may be of crucial importance for patients, clinicians, and researchers. Translationally, these findings may be implicated in the delay—or even prevention—of age-related cognitive and mood disorders from early life through adulthood and older age.This Research Topic aims to collect both original research and review articles addressing recent evidence on the effects of dietary components and metabolic health on brain health across the lifespan (e.g., neurodevelopment, mental functioning, normal brain aging, etc.) and neurological or neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., cerebrovascular diseases, neurodegenerative cognitive and movement disorders, sleep disorders, disease, late-life depression, etc.). This approach will include findings from laboratory and instrumental exams, including neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and neurosonology.Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: • Epidemiological data on human dietary compounds in normal and pathological brain aging • Epidemiology of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and related cardiometabolic risk factors in brain health across the lifespan • Effects of obesity and metabolic dysregulation on systemic and brain vascular biomarkers • Subclinical vascular damage (systemic and cerebral) as a mediator between metabolism/obesity and cognitive, mood, and neurological outcomes • Brain imaging of obesity, metabolism, and subclinical vascular damage (e.g., small vessel disease markers, perfusion, white matter integrity) • Nutrition and neurodevelopment • Diet, obesity, and metabolism in stroke risk, outcome, and recovery • Lifestyle, dietary, weight-loss, and metabolic interventions (including pharmacological approaches) in neurorehabilitation and brain/vascular outcomes • Neurophysiology and neurosonology investigations of dietary intake, metabolic disorders, and obesity Topic editors: Mariagiovanna Cantone, Giulio Geraci, Giuseppe Lanza Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76689/metabolism-obesity-and-brain-health-across-the-lifespan