{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T18:03:31Z","timestamp":1777572211819,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,11]],"date-time":"2024-04-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1712793600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"The Coordena\u00e7\u00e3o de Aperfei\u00e7oamento de pessoal de N\u00edvel Superior - Brasil","award":["001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["001"]}]},{"name":"The Coordena\u00e7\u00e3o de Aperfei\u00e7oamento de pessoal de N\u00edvel Superior - Brasil","award":["001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["001"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100017425","name":"PROPESP\/UFPA","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["EDITAL 01\/2023 \u2013 PROPESP"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EDITAL 01\/2023 \u2013 PROPESP"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100017425","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\"><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Overweight and obesity affect more than 18% of children and adolescents in the world. Obesity-related associations with brain morphology might be associated with reduced efficiency of inhibitory control. This association highlights a possible mechanism by which obesity impacts intelligence and academic achievement. Prior work indicates a mediating effect of inhibitory control on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and intelligence and academic achievement. However, although obesity is associated with impaired math performance, we do not know whether inhibitory control also mediates the relationship between BMI and math performance. This study tests the hypothesis that inhibitory control statistically mediates the relationship between BMI and math performance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec002\"><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>161 children (9 to 13 years old, 80 female) participated in the present study. We evaluated BMI; math performance, in a test composed of 20 arithmetic equations of the type<jats:italic>x<\/jats:italic>= (<jats:italic>a<\/jats:italic>\u00d7<jats:italic>b<\/jats:italic>) \u2212<jats:italic>c<\/jats:italic>; and inhibitory control through the Flanker test. We carried out Spearman correlation tests, hierarchical multiple linear regression, and tested the confidence of the model where inhibitory control statistically mediates the indirect association between BMI and math performance. Mediation analysis in this cross-sectional study aimed to improve understanding of indirect relationships and offer insights into possible causal connections.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec003\"><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Better math performance and lower BMI were associated with greater accuracy on the inhibitory control test and greater accuracy on the inhibitory control test was associated with better performance on math test. We found an indirect association between higher BMI in children and impairments in math performance, that was mediated by inhibitory control (a: -0.008, p = 0.025; b: 7.10, p = 0.0004; c: 0.05, p = 0.592; c\u2019: 0.11, p = 0.238; Indirect Effect: -0.0599, 95% CI: -0.13, -0.005).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec004\"><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>An indirect association between higher body mass indices in children and impairments in math performance was detected, through the impact that BMI has on inhibitory control.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0296635","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,11]],"date-time":"2024-04-11T20:04:07Z","timestamp":1712865847000},"page":"e0296635","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Inhibitory control mediates the association between body mass index and math performance in children: A cross-sectional study"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Felipe Barradas","family":"Cordeiro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marcos Guilherme","family":"Moura-Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mauro Roberto de Souza","family":"Domingues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mizael Carvalho","family":"de Souza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Renan","family":"Rocha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Irene","family":"Esteban-Cornejo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nat\u00e1li Valim Oliver","family":"Bento-Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kirk I.","family":"Erickson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Bento-Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,11]]},"reference":[{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0296635.ref001","article-title":"The global burden of disease attributable to high body mass index in 195 countries and territories, 1990\u20132017: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study","volume":"17","author":"H. 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