Abstract

Background: Obesity affects some vital parts of the brain such as pre-frontal cortex (responsible for short-term memory), hippocampus (responsible for long-term memory) frontal and temporal lobes (required for planning and memory) it damages the tissues of the brain to such an extent that a very less proportion of brain is available for retention of memory. Aim and Objectives: To find out the short-term memory status by visual tasks in obese and non-obese female school children of urban areas.
Materials and Methods: A total of 30 subjects in the age group of 9-15 years were taken from the various schools in Kurnool. Among them, 13 subjects are obese (as cases), and 17 subjects are non-obese children (as controls) for this study. The following tests of short-term memory were conducted which are sub tests of Test of Memory and Learning and Weschler’s intelligence scales for children. Visual tasks include the following tests; (1) Alphabetical (letter span) test, (2) numerical (digit span) test, (3) word memorization test, and (4) object recall test.
Results: Non- obese children are having a better overall short-term memory than the obese children and also performed better in all the individual visual tasks memory tests. Conclusion: Obesity affects short-term memory in female school children.