Phd in PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Thesis title: Overweight and Obesity: The Role of Executive Functions in excessive body weight

The increasing incidence of people who are affected by overweight or obesity represents one of the main worldwide health problems. Accordingly, to deep the possible causes or the exacerbating factors related to the increasing body weight is relevant. In the last years, many studies have focused on the relationship between body weight and cognitive processes. However, few studies focused on the relationship between overweight in the absence of pathological conditions and Executive Functions (EFs). This study is aimed to detect some aspects related to the relationship between EFs and overweight, in general population. A systematic review of the literature (Chapter 1) analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in order to verify the existence of possible causality between these variables. Some experimental studies, in the following chapter have deepened aspects that have emerged from the literature as under-examined. The overall work, in both theoretical and experimental parts have highlighted the need to approach executive functions in the context of overweight and the related overeating behavior associated with it, confirming an association between specific EFs and overweight condition during different developmental stage. In addition, a moderate role of food stimuli in influencing executive performance emerged.