So what does this all mean? We think metabolic ill-health is accompanied by a cognitive shift towards energy conservation, a recalibration of the brain's willingness to expend effort for reward. This may be one pathway through which poor metabolic health contributes to psychiatric comorbidity.
Excited to share our new paper asking a simple question:
Why do mental and metabolic health so often go hand in hand?
We (@camillanord.bsky.social @hugofleming.bsky.social) tested whether shared neurocognitive signatures play a role in this relationship www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We've previously linked the same effort parameter to apathy and anhedonia. So is this effect just picking up on psychiatric comorbidity? Apparently not! The relationship between metabolic health and effort-based decision-making is largely independently of psychiatric symptom burden.