Table 1.

Association between EF and obesity in childhood versus adolescence.

EF Domain	Participant age	Measure used	Findings	Source
Childhood
	2–5.5 yrs	Delay of gratification task	2 yrs performance predictive of 5.5 yrs obesity when considered with emotional regulation	Graziano et al. (2010) [29, 40]
	3–12 yrs	Self-control (age 3) Delay of gratification (age 5) Children's Behavior Questionnaire (age 5)	Children with poorer performance at ages 3 and 5 had significantly higher BMI at all subsequent time points and had the most rapid gain in BMI 3–12 yrs	Francis and Susman (2009) [32]
	6 yrs	Classroom engagement Social behavior questionnaire	Better performance at age 6 correlated with healthier weight in 4th grade	Piché et al. (2012) [31]
(I) Inhibitory control	5–15 yrs	Child behavior questionnaire	Subjects with low inhibitory control at age 7 tended to have higher BMIs at all follow-up measurements and experienced greater weight gain at age 7–15	Anzman and Birch (2009) [35]
	7–9 yrs	Go-No Go Task	Higher BMI correlated with poorer performance	Kamijo et al. (2012) [33, 41]
	8-9 yrs	Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (self-reporting)	Highly sedentary children who were not weight conscious and consumed high fat and high sugar snacks exhibited less inhibitory control than children who were active and consumed fruits and vegetables. EF proficiency negatively correlated with substance use, high-calorie snack food intake, and sedentary behavior, while positively associate with fruit and vegetable intake as well as out-of-school physical activity	Riggs et al. (2012) [30, 42]
	8–11 yrs	Go-No Go and Incompatibility Tasks of Attention Assessment Battery	High impulsivity linked to higher body weight	Pauli-Pott et al. (2010) [34]
	8–12 yrs	Delay of Gratification Task (nonfood reward)	O/OW less likely to delay gratification than HW and overweight* peers	Bruce et al. (2011) [27]
		Go-No Go Task	O/OW had lower response accuracy for No Go component of task than healthy weight controls	Kamijo et al. (2012) [41]
(II) Attention	1–6 yrs	Attention span persistence	Among boys, greater persistence at age 1 associated with reduced standardized weight gain and reduced obesity risk through age 6	Faith and Hittner (2010) [43]
	4–8 yrs	Modified “Bavarian Model” for school entry examinations	O/OW females had greater prevalence of inability to focus attention than HW females (but not males)	Mond et al. (2007) [37]
(III) Reward sensitivity	6–13 yrs	Sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward questionnaire for children	Performance significantly predicts BMI indirectly through overeating	Van den Berg et al. (2011) [38]
(IV) Working memory	8-9 yrs	Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (self-reporting)	Children who were highly sedentary and consumed high fat and high sugar foods exhibited poorer working memory and poorer organizational skills than children considered active and who ate fruits and vegetables. EF proficiency negatively correlated with substance use, high-calorie snack food intake, and sedentary behavior, while positively associate with fruit and vegetable intake as well as out-of-school physical activity	Riggs et al. (2012) [30, 42]
Adolescence
	12–15 yrs	Go-No Go and Incompatibility Tasks of Attention Assessment Battery	Variability of responses and tendency for relationship of body weight and performance to be inverse indicate attentional lapses rather than distinctly inhibitory lapses	Pauli-Pott et al. (2010) [34]
	12–15 yrs	Stop Signal Task	O/OW have less inhibitory control than HW	Nederkoorn et al. (2006) [44]
	13–16 yrs	Iowa Gambling Task	O/OW performed significantly worse than HW controls	Verdejo-García et al. (2010) [45]
(I) Inhibitory control	12–21 yrs	Go-No Go Test Stroop Task Five-Digit Test Computerized Cognitive Test Battery	O/OW showed significantly more false positive responses and shorter reaction time than HW; significant association between disinhibition, OFC volume, and BMI	Batterink et al. (2010) [46]; Maayan et al. (2011) [12]; Verdejo-García et al. (2010) [45]
	7.5–15 yrs	Go-No Go Task Interference task	High impulsivity predicted successful weight loss in adolescents	Pauli-Pott et al. (2010) [47]
	10–14 yrs	The stop task Circle drawing task Opposite worlds task Maudsley Index of Childhood Delay Aversionand Door-Opening Task	Association was found with overweight children and less efficient inhibitory control	Verbeken et al. (2009) [48]
	12–17 yrs	Letter-Number Sequencing Stroop and Iowa Gambling Task	Greater improvement in cognitive inhibitory control skills was associated with greater reductions in BMI	Delgado-Rico et al. (2012) [49]
(II) Attention/Mental flexibility	12–19 yrs	Trail making test Wisconsin card sorting test Computerized Cognitive Test Battery Five-Digit Test-Switching Color-Word Interference Test Stroop D2 Attention Endurance Test	O/OW performed significantly worse than HW on all tasks; BMI inversely related to Stroop-switching performance for O/OW subjects	Lokken et al. (2009) [50]; Cserjesi et al. (2007) [51]; Verdejo-García et al. (2010) [45]; Delgado-Rico et al. (2012) [52]
(III) Reward sensitivity	12–15 yrs	Door-Opening Task	O/OW were more sensitive to reward and kept gambling longer than HW	Nederkoorn et al. (2006) [44]
(IV) Working memory	13–21 yrs	Working memory index of WRAML and Letter-Number sequencing	O/OW performed worse than HW controls	Maayan et al. (2011) [12]

Obese/Overweight (O/OW) versus Healthy Weight (HW): subjects classified as overweight or obese met the criteria of BMI ≥30 kg/m² or >95 percentile for BMI for age and gender; subjects classified as healthy weight met the criteria of BMI <25 kg/m² or within 5–85 percentile for BMI for age and gender.

*Overweight: BMI between 85 and 95%.