Shared genetic basis between childhood obesity and language development
We found a shared genetic basis between obesity and language development rather than a causal effect of obesity on language development. Early-life proteomics provides biological insights.
Previous research has highlighted links between cardiometabolic health and neurocognitive outcomes. For example, while dementia can impact communication and language, early language development is crucial for cognitive growth. Although childhood obesity may be associated with suboptimal neurodevelopment, these findings are often confounded by socioenvironmental factors. To address this, we used data from the GUSTO cohort—Singapore’s largest and most comprehensive birth cohort study—to study the link between obesity and language development in early life. Our goal was to explore whether early-life body mass index (BMI) influences language development in children, leveraging multiple domains of data, such as genomics, proteomics and neuroimaging measures.
We leveraged trans-ancestry polygenic predictions of BMI to interrogate the causal effects of early-life BMI on child language development and its effects on molecular and neuroimaging measures. Our study shows that genetic variants linked to obesity are also associated with early language development in children. This relationship is likely due to a shared genetic basis between obesity and language-related skills rather than a direct causal effect of higher obesity on language abilities. Additionally, our data suggest that EPH-Ephrin signalling may play a role in language development. Overall, these insights underscore the potential of integrating early-life proteomic analyses with deep genotyping and phenotyping to enhance our understanding of child health and development at a molecular level. More comprehensive early-life proteomic profiling to further elucidate the molecular links between cardiometabolic health and neurodevelopment.
This study is featured as the cover article in the March issue 2025 of eBioMedicine and is highlighted on Psychreg.org.
For more details, see Huang J, et al. Linking obesity-associated genotype to child language development: the role of early-life neurology-related proteomics and brain myelination. eBioMedicine. 2025.