Whole‐brain functional connectivity correlates of obesity phenotypes

Figures

• 

  FIGURE 1. Flowchart of this study. (a) Quantification of FC pattern using data from the UK Biobank database. FC analysis was applied to the preprocessed rs‐fMRI data, and degree centrality values were calculated. Elastic net regularization was used to estimate regression coefficients. A single scalar score was computed using a linear combination of the estimated coefficients and degree centrality values, and it was correlated with obesity phenotypes. (b) Validation procedures. The same FC analysis was performed in independent datasets. The FC pattern developed using the UK Biobank dataset was transferred to the independent dataset to calculate the FC pattern score via a linear combination of the developed FC pattern and regional degree centrality values for all participants, which was correlated with their obesity phenotypes

• 

  FIGURE 2. An obesity phenotype‐associated FC pattern derived from the UK Biobank data. (a) The obesity phenotype‐associated FC pattern mapped onto the whole brain. The red/blue colors represent positive/negative FC pattern to associate brain regions and an obesity phenotype (i.e., waist circumference). (b) FC pattern of the regions with the 15 highest magnitudes. (c) FC pattern for all brain regions. Error bars represent ±1 standard error of the mean. The dotted line indicates the threshold for the 15 highest magnitudes of the FC pattern. The brain regions over the threshold are marked with an asterisk. VMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex; VLPFC, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; STG, superior temporal gyrus; SPL, superior parietal lobule; ITG, inferior temporal gyrus; pSTS, posterior superior temporal sulcus

• 

  FIGURE 3. Correlation between FC pattern score and obesity phenotypes controlled for age and sex. (a) Correlation coefficients and FDR‐corrected p‐values. (b) Correlations with obesity phenotypes at various sparsity levels of the FC pattern. The maximum number (=106) was computed from the number of brain regions with nonzero regression coefficients by using the original FC pattern without changing the sparsity