Yeah, I'm just about to start the podcast. You have information. Hmm. I've been wondering why Construction hasn't started quite yet. What do you mean bigger and larger than what we first thought? There's absolutely no way it could be that big. What do you mean? They're gonna have to remove that This is a lot more insane. I'm about to start the podcast. I can't even listen right now Professional we are I think so guys new equipment new everything so we need your help How are things working? Am I loud am I quiet? Does Jacob look funny over there? It doesn't sound so bad though There is an echo Audio is perfect. That's from Anne. Yeah, okay slight echo. I do hear it though. I'm not gonna lie Okay, we'll turn our mics away from each other to the best of our ability This is good. This is new for us.  Yeah, there's a lot of equipment Brendan's Mike has a lot of echo How do I fix this? It didn't sound fine The last test sounded fine Who's the people on the left? That's a good question Okay Can we fix mine? Jake, I'm looking at you He's the microphone expert Nice break it Does this one still work? Okay, I think so Okay, Brendan is in a stadium. Maybe we need acoustic panels Lower your gain. Yeah Reverb I'll just point mine away from it. Maybe it was these ones Now that goes worse than you sound far away years We're gonna be fighting over the microphone now All right emergency backup plan. I mean that works now I get the cool mic and Brendan doesn't Like you're in a pipe Is it working now now? We're probably good Sure, hope so Remember the comments we see is like Perfect, okay, that's good.  I can't even I can't even my mic is the Best right I brought my mic I offered to bring my mic and Brendan's like no He's been like the last 30 minutes. My mic is we were making fun of him and he was taking it personally like he was gonna go home Okay There welcome to the podcast we have who are you? People don't know you Krega Christian. I'm Christian. What do you want to be referred to as this is 2024 It's gonna be Krega. Okay. There's an there's a new ish face Back there in my mind before I Wouldn't call him really since I was Kiefer or code blast on the internet and then ill Blondie hi, I'm blonde. My name is Jake.  There's an echo and they're like, no it sounds perfect I'm like, trust me there's an echo. I think it's because when you're testing it wasn't loud enough, but it's all right We fixed it. Yeah, it's all good now the report or something. Who knows. Yeah, we'll figure it out for next time Alright, yeah, it is almost everywhere. That's crazy. Um, so in a second I at patreon's I see you chatting in patreon live chat on discord in a second when we switch over to some other things You guys will have access to type directly into the stream The patreon like a description. Yeah, I think yeah, we'll do it Also, can we get a round of applause for the new intro? What did everybody think of the new intro? Yeah, what does everyone think about the Leviathan one? I know Jake doesn't like I personally like the other one. Yeah He just likes to complain. That's all it's all it. You know what? Cool your hundas outside beat with a whole microphone today. Oh This is this is a house. Yeah, this is a house You think if you think amusement insiders can afford a studio now. This is our warehouse This is where we run. This is where we we spawn little Jacobs um But I'm really sad because there was supposed to be a really cool custom wallpaper. I thought he was gonna say There's supposed to be somebody else here and point at me So Surya is what's supposed to be here Surya will be here next week expecting like damn No, I'm sad about that too. You know No, but like I came up with a really cool wallpaper I think you guys are gonna like everything about the podcast is going to be themed to blueprints But it'll look better than this squiggly. Yeah, it's gonna look better than the squiggly line that I literally put up last night And if you can tell right here, I had trouble look where it goes behind that The extra extra light it looks like Millennium Force in the background There will be a behemoth in Yukon intro But yeah, it takes time and a lot of money But okay, how's everyone's week? Craig you have exciting news are we waiting for whose week oh us I thought you were waiting for the chat. I'm like whose response are we waiting for here? I'm getting a new car on Saturday. Hopefully depending on if mr. Insurance man did his thing and Other than that. I've been working like literally daily every single night this week. I've been in a truck at work What about you Brendan? Life's going good.  Hey, we were here. What night were we here? We were here till late one night setting this up when was that and what did you guys do that night? What did we do that night? It was like Tuesday. Okay, but what do we do? We said we set your podcast up. That's what we did What about the podcast did you say cuz I recall someone getting bored and then like I Told me to set up like the computer part of it while they're setting up all this stuff and I just started playing for tonight Yeah, and Brendan built these chairs by the way So if one of us falls honestly, that would make my there's a reason I don't have the podcast chair I don't think it can hold me. Don't think is a nice way of putting it. It'll be fine Thank you keeper. Someone here is to boost my confidence You should have seen how mine was before he fixed it Okay, so Oh Jake, how's your how's your week? We didn't ask them. I don't go to high school I'm in the year off and I'm doing nothing on a day-to-day basis. So you hear about it every day Yeah, he's always like VC and no one responds But now I'm I'm working nine to five pretty much every day. I've somehow managed to get yesterday and today off I don't know how what do you do for work now? I'm a technician at Can I even say where I work? Probably doesn't you I work at the Legoland Discovery Center as a technician for the Reds Geez look at you What a cool guy Like a teacher we we're gonna do games in our hangout streams. So we have like a little thing You should have seen how confused Brendan was setting that up. Yeah, I mean, it's an impressive company though Like I feel like I want to like high quality high quality invest in this company. They're going They're going place. They're going place. It really does look like a teacher All right, okay, so let's get into it. You guys aren't here to hear about our lives So let's start off light. I will tell you that the podcast is gonna obviously Episodes we're gonna start at one episode a week. Maybe there'll be more because I mean, there's a lot Hold on hold on hold on. We didn't put that in the contract. What do you mean? There's a contract? No There's a lot of stuff happening at the park I guess I want to start off the podcast. I'm looking at Jake right now. So Jake works at Wonderland So Jake can't partake in a lot of the conversations that are about the park That's why I don't deserve a mic anymore. Jake really enjoys his job And I promise Jake that we will protect Jake at all costs So Jake won't be discussing anything or revealing anything about his role But he can also confirm that ride operators and stuff like that don't know anything that's coming to the park They don't know any inside information. They literally are just there to work. So Yeah, Jake won't be talking about anything Wonderland like Inside information even about his ride or his job titles. He's just here to give his opinion. Hi You need better lighting Turn on the light. Are you joking me? You know what's set up in here? We literally have lights everywhere. We have studio lights shining on them and me Well, this one looks like somebody sat on it, but it's doing okay. Yeah It's probably you Craig. Oh, so Yeah, obviously we're gonna play around. This is a test stream, but let's get into it So for those of you that don't know even though I'm sure all of you know Yes, they can Nemesis this is slow motion by the way, this is not slow motion. We got into a huge debate So Craig was arguing that in the loop. I was like it's going through the loop so slow I'm burping um and I was like he's like it's slow motion. I was like it's not slow motion It's hang time as we call it in the thing, but let's go one by one Jake. What do you think about Nemesis? I'm glad it's operating again because I know the fans of all towers didn't like it when it wasn't operating, but it looks cool Kiefer I I think it looks pretty good. It's probably not as fast as it's going to be and I know the ride Did actually run faster before but it did have a little bit more hang time in the loop than most inverts do So I think it's gonna be a good Re-addition to the Alton Towers lineup Y'all are boring. Okay, so I think it looks really cool Is this the first coaster that have has had like custom decals put on it like this? Yeah, I think it's gotta be it has to be yeah Like I wouldn't be opposed to more parks doing stuff like this to their older attractions and even like upping their theming But this is an older attraction. So what even is this what's going on here? Nobody told me I just so yeah, Craig is like kind of it's a BNM invert so it's got to be good What happened to what do you mean it closed what so it like it did it reach the end of its service life What happened is this new track or they just repaint the track more or less It's all new track that they did all they kept was like the station the brake run track and then the lift hill That's the same thing they did to the Incredible Hall coaster at Islands of Adventure So they ripped out all the track and supports and redid it and they added more to add to the theming on it Look, it's not slow. The loop is definitely slow mo. It's not slow mo. It's just running slow because it's cold It's slow. Oh, live chats not working Or did it disappear it probably disappeared in a hundred percent disappear Okay, yeah, Craig, what do you think about this coaster? You don't know anything about again, it's a BNM invert So it's got to be great. I love the decals at least I mean that's pretty cool Also, what is this theme to because like look oh and that's awesome. That is absolutely awesome Basically an alien breaking out of its containment zone, right? And they have the height limit there too that they have to work around right so the fact that they put that in with such a that's cool It looks cool. I want to see a POV though at some point. Is it a new credit then? Is it a new credit? No, I personally don't think so. It's the same ride experience that was there before Is it the same experience? Well, they added slow motion to the loop so that's pretty cool That's like saying like retracking mind buster and wild beast is kind of making it a new credit. See I agree It's not a no incredible Hulk would not have been a new credit. No way Something like Kingsman and Drizly they even though they did a little bit of reprofiling. I don't think it's the same credit Anyways, who cares about the UK Hmm mind buster mind buster retracking Okay, so it's so funny if you guys remember I did my construction update I was like, I didn't see them ripping up any wood So maybe they're just doing like a steel track replacement I go to fly the drone the very next day and this is what it looked like In fact, it's even more so ripped up than not right there in front of you Actually, I just noticed the airtime moment over the bridge is ripped up as well But this is the double down the the like literally the most rough part the roughest part on mind buster So with a complete retracking I mean that could be pretty awesome Especially in the wet it okay. It could be like in a top three spot Just say top three. Yeah in the wet. Okay, but where do you rank you con in that top three? I Sort of you say for We said it was in the top three Okay, what is your top four now? I'm triggered. I haven't been on anything in so long. Let's see I honestly I put Leviathan behemoth Vortex is pretty good too. What? You're trying to trigger me right now. I do personally like vortex a lot. I love over you con Not on some days to be honest with you. So they're all panicking. They're like, he's gonna buy a rest on some days Also, what's better about this picture is I was there when he flew the drone I was shown this picture and I saw nothing wrong with the ride. Yeah, he literally was like, what are you seeing? Am I do not see no looks fine No, it looks good. What are your guys's opinions over there? Well, I'll tell you guys a little bit of a story. I took my mom to the park this past season and Right literally where they're retracking is where she got so badly hurt She did not want to look at that right over again. If I tried to drag her on it She would have killed me. It was that bad for her. She said it's the worst ride. She'd ever been on Sounds like every yeah, we did we sat in row like six or something Like second car wheel or a non-wheel seat Minebuster is lots of fun. I really like it at night But you know the the double down I always like I'd go and Brendan would be sitting beside me I just look at him and we So I think the microphone didn't pick that up The sound that Brendan makes on minebuster during this part And we always sit in a non-wheel seat. So like I couldn't imagine it on a wheel seat That's actually so true every time he always does that scream when you get to that part of the ride Yeah, he's always That is how you scream screen when he's almost about to get in a car crash in his car, you know Which is a day-to-day occurrence is no, I'm a good driver. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tick-tock. No, my car's automatic features. Yeah So Yeah, it's that scream that gets me but I think minebuster is fine if you ride it with a group of friends But by yourself I it deserves it if you were to ride it by yourself He said friends. What's it's like? What's it like to have I butchered that moving on? Yeah, did everyone give their opinion on minebuster ruin your you didn't I'm excited. I Just told everyone to not say that No, honestly, like this section needed it so badly like so badly it's the only section that needed it to be fair of the tunnel When you hit the tunnel that's awesome.  That's part of the experience If it's not fun, you're supposed to be rattled around on that thing. It's not like we're riding Mystic Timbers Hey, what are you talking about?  You know what it needs It needs to be torn down for a water park expansion agreed I'm not saying it's not happening Yeah, the tunnel is so loud. It's crazy. The tunnel is loud. That's one of the best parts.  Oh From the Vaughn teenagers Long as Brendan doesn't sit on the inside seats. You should be good I'm like the skinniest one in this friend group. So The poor divider that has to deal with that on the seats Like Ben Okay, are we ready to move on is everyone said everything Everyone's down on minebuster. Yeah, I think so snooze fast Can't see it yet. They're nice. Oh, okay So I paid a lot of money to have there was this really good-looking person in the industry that knows how to draw up Renderings of what you know projects are gonna look like and this person drew us this front gate Example so on the screen You paid a lot of money for that drawing You didn't get the joke that's me. Oh I said a good-looking person.  I'm just brain dead. Yeah, it's okay I'm sitting there like he's telling us that he paid a lot of money for that. It looks like it looks like you drew it. I Get why you would Spend money getting everything done.  I think will be exit only areas green will lead into the new entrance black is the new merch store Which might actually be an exit only Proguts game People are still talking about mine busters. I go back to it. No Was made in a few minutes it literally was made in a few minutes. I don't even doubt it Like that's Microsoft paint right there yellow The building that I highlighted in yellow. They are gutting it and moving everything out of it So I'm not quite sure what's going on there yet and the sign is still up What do you what Krega think about the front gate Renault? What do you think they should do with the front gate Renault? I don't need your mic. I got my own mic. I'm gonna steal it from you I mean if I remember going to To be fair we went to the was in New Jersey six flags That one didn't have a very nice front gate either, but cedar point had a pretty nice front gate anything in terms of that sort Of modern style I'd be more than happy with to be honest with you like our front gate looks old It looks like a day at the park open still from 1981 Maybe they changed the light bulbs inside the Canada's one. It may be I couldn't even confirm that and that's about it It doesn't look like it ain't it once it's crack So I personally think they have to change the sign because I looked at it actually gesture in winter fast and it was cracking That's just that's the paint separating from the yeah, but like I feel like a park like Wonderland shouldn't have that Yeah, I know it should be switched Especially if that gets lit up you'd see the cracks like yeah, yeah at night. You see it. It wouldn't look good What do you think Kiefer I know I did that on purpose No, I think they really need to improve the guest flow it takes way too long to get into the park these days Like even during winterfest I waited half an hour to get in when it should have taken five minutes It was kind of ridiculous. Yeah, and it wasn't that busy either The stream deck scares me I'm not used to these things so cool. I wish you could see what's going on But I'm scared if I move it I'm gonna ruin everything So I want to answer a quick patreon question someone says that's what I was looking for Why do you think we're getting a new main merch store or merch our merch is I'm gonna touch on very shortly So we're gonna go through everything and then it's gonna start so again what we're talking about right now Isn't even beginning the topic so my seven-day videos that I stopped for this podcast is Because I'd rather do it on the podcast. I'm gonna What was that noise? Oh? I'm gonna reveal some really big information that I learned Online and that is going to start almost like a seven-part series on the podcast About what's happening at Wonderland because it's big but Jake, what do you think about front gate right now? I'm glad it's being done previously. I've seen lines that go all the way to Lake behemoth and Kingswood area Especially during COVID but that was COVID but now these days It still sometimes goes down to that spot especially at 10 a.m. You know you're riding Leviathan right in the morning You see like first couple chains of the day you see a huge line at the front It should be everybody's just flowing in but We'll see what happens. I Mean this is exciting in itself. So I'm gonna explain to you guys what those yellow lines are so essentially the yellow lines Are those new security systems that they tested out they had to so keep that in mind. They had two Scanners starting in what was it? Lates a mid-summer late summer. I can't remember when they put them in the park was able to decently handle crowds with just those two so imagine those scanners in Increments of ten so the math I've done is either eight or ten. Okay. It's hard to see from so far away on the drone So imagine eight or ten of those things now and I Think it's it's gonna help greatly I if they are bringing these scanners that I think they have those green dots if they're bringing the system that I think they're Bringing then you'll be able to walk up to these machines scan the new app with your barcode of your season pass Print out whatever you need to print out or be able to print your own season pass Whatever you need to do kind of like print your daily tickets there as well and go in through the gate So everything's gonna be a little more automated if that's the case Brilliant, but I'm not sure yet if that's actually what's happening. So Yeah, this is this is very last minute I was really surprised when the park even confirmed to me that this like they were doing a front gate upgrade Is the words they used for me and that they couldn't Reveal any more information at the moment, but yeah Keeper did you go? Yeah, I just want to add something. I think they like for busier days where you have the exit kind of Listed there. I feel like they're gonna also have temporary metal detectors or something They could bring out to add more gas flow into the area and they could also start doing it before park open Like maybe a half hour to an hour before so as soon as the park's ready to go It's just scan scan scan and you're in yeah, and they it'll give them more time to in the morning Instead of flooding the front gate area inside the park. They could open it closer to 10 when they do open Giving more cars and stuff that are driving through and whatnot some time to get by Yeah, yeah, even that system we have now with the gate is it's fine. It works pretty well It's just if that was actually done professionally. I feel like it would be very very efficient. Yeah, again It's only like it's a gate that opens up It was not done properly But imagine I've like ten gates that open up like that with people just being able to walk right through you get Told go or don't go and that's it. Yeah, you know how quick and easy that is If you don't go over here, so I can't see why Cedar Fair isn't going to implement these self-service stuff because our labor is Really expensive as a part Yeah, what's minimum wage here right now 1650 an hour. I'm not saying that people don't deserve that But what I'm saying is from the business perspective, you know on the conference calls and all that they're like all labor Is high and all that so yeah Definitely I see Them moving more towards self check-in and all that kind of stuff one more thing Brendan Yep, they did mention the prestige pass with the front gate thing. Do you want to talk about that? So the prestige pass will have a separate entrance for the first two hours of the day And that's all we know so far And If I know Wonderland, they will somehow drop the ball on that no offense Previously they had done if you had like a Platinum pass and all season fast lane or fast lane for the day And you had a separate entrance and then they just stopped doing it out of nowhere I think that lasted what a month and a half or something. Yeah, that was it That is actually a very good point. Yeah, I should answer that. Oh, I don't have an answer Like a theory Yeah, that's what I mean, what's a moment? I mean, I don't know how other parks do it. It's unfortunate, but like I don't know Yeah Well, yeah, it also doesn't help ours is just very understaffed there's like one person that's there on the outside and one person That's there on the inside Convair Bell Okay, I guess that's it for front gate like this is a developing thing and they hired a Really expensive company to do this by the way, they didn't just hire some nonchalant company They hired the company that has built 80% of Universal Studios's attraction Oh, sorry hotels and Universal Studios wizarding world of Harry Potter. So a very big name Um, all right datums and mountain talk. What is it? Datums are like almost like a measurement. It's an important measurement of elevation For example, they didn't even use datums on Yukon striker and which is shocking because it had a tunnel The only time they've used datums is for behemoth because of where it was located and Now this mountain This is a file that I have been given access to and I have put my logo on it just so other people don't use it and It is very telling Is it all the information is covered by your logo? No, the information that I cut the things I covered with my logo. Yeah, it's right here They can't see my mouse, but it's right there. That's the man is the mountain right there So yeah, they can see it Um, I Am I'm starting to get really curious about something so Can you guys go over what your opinions on the mountain just the mountain being Constructed like whatever they're about to do the mountain for a coaster. What are your opinions on it? I need to figure out how to word something before I say it because I have to be really careful All right Well, if you think back to Yukon striker How did they build the tunnel they built the tunnel first then they put the track in then they put the top of the tunnel The thing is the mountain already exists. It's an existing structure So if they were to put track inside of the mountain They'd have to tear off a lot of it put the track inside of the mountain and then put the mountain back together And hopefully it looks the same if they were to do something like that Yeah, and the mountain is old. It's well like 45 years old now close to that something like that Yeah, I guess with the park being under construction Defer I Don't know. I think you touched on it pretty well. It's a really old concrete structure. They're gonna have to do something eventually to update it and Why not start now if they want to build a new coaster instead of just making little patches here and there whenever there's like a leak or something or Concrete that falls off or whatever The mountain also wasn't designed for it so they're gonna have to redo a lot of structuring on the inside you might not see Can they even do that while the mountains still enclosed? We don't know so there'd probably be a lot of changes coming in the long run For what's going on at the mountain? Well, that was touched on pretty well What if you didn't give your opinion they just they just talked about it for me, but we gave his opinion for him Yeah, they did wait they can't hear someone. I can't okay. They can hear everyone Are you muted? Okay, we're good. Um, oh boy Okay, so this is a really tough subject for me to talk on because truthfully I Accidentally stumbled upon something that I shouldn't have stumbled upon and it was it was public information that is no longer public it was on a site that is public and It was a complete portfolio of past rides that this company has done And future rides that this company is working on including top-thrilled to Which obviously confirmed to me a couple of things and Obviously confirmed to me the type of roller coaster that they're gonna go with and the location of the roller coaster they're gonna go with and then Interestingly enough after that was found datum started popping up in the area of the mountain and I am really struggling to figure out how to word this so basically There's another really big subject that's about to come right after this slide, but essentially it looks like Wonderland has hired a design firm a third-party design firm to completely build a storyline for this coaster and area and completely theme this coaster and area with on-board audio sound effects tunnels theming and everything and What was interesting is everything seemed concrete and then suddenly Surveying started again. So surveying had already happened in this area and This is where things get really confusing because construction was supposed to start The last week of December and then it got pushed a second week in January and then now it's pushed back even more now When I've talked to people in the industry It could be for two reasons I have seen evidence that moose horn falls is being rushed and the front gate is being rushed There's a really big team working on it. So obviously this team is going to be the same team working on the Launch coaster so I can confirm that it looks like Wonderland is going to a hundred percent be moving forward with a launch coaster in the mountain area and The company that is working on front gate is going to be working on the launch coaster the from what I gather So far and there is a lot of missing information because it does look like something's changed and I don't know what has changed exactly yet Again, the potto land and the salad coaster is pretty confirmed but It almost looks like this coaster is going to take up a much larger plot of land than originally expected and what scares me about that is This was supposed to be a 2025 coaster and there's still a really good chance. It's for 2025 But the surveying still taking place if it's for the coaster is Concerning because that means they're still on the drawing board and That shouldn't be the case now I have the luxury of having people in the industry to talk to and this isn't BS anyone who knows me knows this to be true and I've been told two things. I've been told that This could be for several reasons. So they went there is a team working inside the mountain by the way So basically they could have been working in there building something and then they realized and which happens sometimes Hey, this structure can't support this or this isn't going to work. We need to go back to the drawing board for this specific plot of land So that could be it It could also be for a completely different project, which is true It could just be a different project in that area Or it could be that they decided the wing coaster was too complicated to do launching into the mountain and fit and all this and they are now going with a different model and I Have been told that yes Time-wise it's difficult But if Wonderland wanted to and the company wanted to they could still design a coaster and have it built for 2025 So when it comes to the coaster in this specific plot of land, I don't know why Things are happening the way they're happening right now But I will say from everyone I've talked to It's really interesting and I want to explain more specifically the datums. Sorry. Am I boring everyone? I just like I have to be really careful about how I word things just because Again like I do Want to respect the park to a certain extent and I like to talk about the future of the park But I like to talk about it in a respectful way that isn't necessarily full on leaking things but Essentially like the datums are really interesting because those datums were done for demolition purposes and It's Thunder Runs exit So that's why it changes a few things and I what I wanted to stress about this is it looks like the mountain And I feel weird talking about this before the next slide But it looks like the mountain might be receiving a complete overhaul as a whole Which would be really exciting so Your voice was starting to echo a tiny bit Brendan Yeah, I might have turned towards you. Yeah, so basically That's what I'll say about the mountain for now I will say that when I flew today, they are still surveying in The location of this wing coaster or invert or different model So it's really interesting because it almost seems like they're surveying on the daily What are you doing over there? Oh I Brough so So basically that's what I'll say about that right now the next slide is Literally the beginning so you're gonna see content is gonna change I Wouldn't say content is gonna change you're gonna see the storyline I Discussed on Wonderland is going to change because I found something in complete public eye About some really big information and I've spoken to a couple people in the industry about this and this is almost a first That it's that has happened at least in the Cedar Fair chain. So I did everyone talk about The markings and the mountain and all that and what like anyone have any thoughts about surveying Get your dose we've seen a lot of Survey markings around the like thunder and exit And a few popped up on the fly. That's all I gotta say. Yeah. Yeah, so like that's a whole different subject That's alpine So Wonderland has some pretty cool plans for alpine from what I understand and they've confirmed some of them actually The Thunder Run renovation or re-enhancement of their theming has been confirmed by the park itself No, I think for Thunder Run mainly it's if they're doing something to the mountain They could be trying to rebuild it like from the inside without destroying the exterior structure, but I don't think so Nothing's impossible with construction But anyway, like if they have to retool and like reset up the structure of the mountain That's probably why they'd have to relocate things. It feels so weird not looking at you when you're talking. I feel so disrespectful We can see them crystal clear. We just need to transparent. I can see you guys through the camera But it's like we're so far apart We just need to transparent monitors we can see Brendan. Yeah. Oh, I thought you guys knew yes Thunder Run will be getting a theming overhaul from what I understand again things change again For example Yukon Stryker was supposed to be built in 2016 So things change and they can change very last minute They even started construction on Yukon Stryker and then things changed And I will tell you the minute I go to this next slide. I think you guys aren't ready for this I know my patreon's know this information already But I have not made a video about this yet because it has been I even I've just to put in perspective I messaged the park asking about this so obviously Nothing got back about it, but You know what it is. It's every time I unmute my mic Is it I think that's what it is. Yes. Oh when you want your mic It affects your it's why they every time I've unmuted it. There's been a comment saying that echoes. Okay, so maybe Okay, is it working now We'll test test test. Yeah, hello Okay Well, if you keep doing it's gonna affect it Cargo should move his mic closer to him the the mic quality is good. Okay, perfect Oh when I look that way, that's true this unmuted, okay, and you keep your eyes that way So awkward being in a podcast room and like not looking at anyone everybody on the screen and look he's got his own little screen over there They're happy. They can see us. I can see Jake eye-to-eye, so I'm personally happy anyway Syria Syria will be on the next episode. He was supposed to be here today. He's just taking a day Rest don't worry Let's go to the did anyone have anything else to say about the mountain Thunder Run even Thunder Runs renovation like yay Echoes are not noticeable No, you're not Okay, um, I want to point it away from you. Yeah pointed away from me. Okay, perfect. Maybe like this would be better Any talk and update on Herman that I don't know but I have a feeling they would upgrade it If I'm to guess, okay This is wonderland. This is part of it. This is wonderland trademarking Canada's wonderland And wonderland for hotel restaurant services and hotel services Um So this was a find that I found and messaged wonderland right away Um And they had no comment on it, of course And then I found something even juicier so It appears And take this with a grain of salt and I'm going to use the word it appears um That wonderland itself has taken out a large-scale loan um and put up uh, Canada's wonderland And wonderland as collateral their trademark so Collateral is a big word um This is the first time we've seen something like this happen in the cedar fair chain and it was really confusing because rides and obviously restaurants and stuff like that are under um cedar fair's normal budget And then it was brought to my attention. I started talking to some people in the industry um that a hotel Or a mountain refurb Wouldn't be under cedar fair's normal budget And that for such a park like canada's wonderland where a mountain would need such refurbishments In a large scale or a hotel They would have to take it alone, uh, essentially to cover that Uh, so I thought that was really interesting. So I don't have any information on the size of the loan Um, but for them to put their trademarks up as collateral um, it is uh I could explain collateral as if I was five Essentially if wonderland doesn't pay their loan they lose the name canada's wonderland and wonderland Um But wonderland's a park that would never default on their loan. I can promise you that they'd have to really mess up um It's odd on who's backing the loan. I agree. So Jim is someone I actually spoke to so, um Essentially, um I can't even remember the the bank name on the top of my head now It's a it's a big american bank one of their main banks Chasing chase. Yeah chase, right? Yeah, it's chase bank. Um, wow So jp morgan and chase. Yeah, so It was it was an american loan that was taken out to under canada's wonderland's kind of like Name, uh, not under like it was taken out under canada's wonderland's name so We have your trademark. We have your trade. Yeah, exactly So it leads me to believe because also if you guys remember about a year ago two years ago Vaughn was looking to build an indoor water park Um, that was something vaughn wanted built in a within a 10-year period again it would be extremely difficult for me to believe that cedar fair wouldn't have taken up that public funding to build one so What i'm trying to get at and what you're going to start seeing a lot of discussion is with wonderland taking it alone And you guys have heard you've seen there's evidence everywhere that wonderland is trying to almost become something that they're Whoa, I can see you looking at me like Um trying to become like a theme park and a destination park Um, I I think it's inevitable that you're going to see a huge Change in investments and I think that they're being really careful Um and cautious about what they build now I think you're going to see The end of almost like a lot of flat rides being added to the park I think you're going to see a lot of family rides. You're going to still see some really high scale um themed High intense roller coasters. Don't laugh at me um, but Yeah, I mean like It's it's To me, it's like crazy because like uh, I never once did I think that wonderland would be this center of attention If you guys remember the podcast last year, I was already kind of hinting at a front gate reno coming very soon Um, I was hinting at a roller coaster for 2025 since last year Um, and it's all happening, but I wasn't Expecting them to build what I think could be that big of a hotel um And this elaborate of theming and hiring such a company That they've hired to do the front gate and the coaster and for them to go into such detail with like onboard audio and all that So it's really exciting. Like it honestly like it's it's a really big thing And it's going to take a while it's I'm not saying kennins wonderland's going to be a destination park Come two three years from now you're like but six to eight years from now I think wonderland's going to look very different very different What do you guys think? Yeah, I honestly had no idea what you were talking about for the last 20 minutes It's above your pay grade Completely lost From from what brendan's saying, I think wonderland is trying to Not okay, not become cedar point, but like cedar point of fies. That's a word cedar point of fies themselves So like cedar point has the on-site hotel the off-site hotel and all the things that make it A resort like a place you go for multiple days instead of one day you go to wonderland for a day Like my family we used to live in london. We drove down To wonderland at like 8 a.m. All right for 10 left at 10 we got home at midnight Like if it was if there was a hotel we probably would have stayed stayed a couple of days The more the more time you're there the more money to make bang bang boom money in the pocket now and I I think I actually have a good idea of where they could put An indoor water park if they were looking at that as well and like a resort hotel and whatnot It literally down the street where uh davin busters is For those of you who know the area There's an old entertainment district with an abandoned movie theater and they're like They pretty much kicked out all the tenants that were in that plaza. They could build that there And there's definitely enough space for them to do that And they could be able to chase people they could have buses they have the bus terminal that's right next to Pretty much at the park where the employee parking lot is To bring people to and from that area Correct me if i'm wrong, but that davin busters area is becoming condos. Yeah Unfortunately, yeah that whole thing that whole complex of everything that the the mini putt because that's a whole separate thing That's becoming condos everything is there Yeah, they they kicked out all the tenants in those buildings. There was like a boston pizza there There was mini golf and they're they're just gone. They're building condos And it would make a lot more sense if they did that there because it's within A decent distance from the park to shuttle people back and forth. Yeah I don't know where else they would put something like that in von though maybe up further But I I think you guys are all missing a plot of land that can fit it very easily And enthusiasts don't want this, but it just makes the most sense Kingswood I think I know what it echoes when I lean back and I get really close in your mic range It's a perfect spot for if you think about it where kingswood is I wasn't even thinking on the onsite They'd have to do parking garages to keep the parking space though if they expand into that area because they'd have to Or underground Oh, they could build an underground Thanks, Brendan push. Oh, oh my goodness Okay, while they're fixing that What do we what do we think is the possibility of uh canada's wonderland subway brendon? I don't think it's happening anytime soon It doesn't make sense to build a subway to a park that's not open every all year There we go saw that comment Um I yeah, I just What do you guys think? What do you guys think? What do you think about an indoor water park? Then they can destroy slash works and build more posters. That's not what would happen I think next to an outdoor water park. Yeah, it's going to be a little interesting, but See no the water park. I feel like they should do off-site. I don't think it should be a part of that hotel Yeah, if they're gonna do an off-site one Then it should have a hotel slash water park thing. Sure Even off-site to where that highway ramp is that's better, but like in the thing Why would you want to park and it's like right beside it? You could have like a photo with both of them in the same shot. I don't know if you'd really want that So It's a weird place for a for a water indoor water park. Yeah. No, I always you got parking No, yeah, you got parking the hotel space by the ramp by the highway ramp. That's the best spot What can you fit in that little tiny plot? How much bigger do you think kingswood is than that little tiny plot a lot bigger the theater alone could fit 10 000 people 10 000 That's not a lot of people the sky dome. I think is like triple that. Yeah, but you can't While we're at it, don't forget to like the stream everybody hit the like button down below Let's try to get a hundred and fifty likes I know there's 125 of you watching so I need to see that like number go up Thank you very much I wonder is it going up my screen says one you tell Jake please So someone is telling me that our documents aren't readable and we are blurry on youtube I'm I do not mean to sound rude. Um, if you're watching that is your internet. I I could see it on jakes. I've had right now It's crystal clear. Yeah so They're they're literally like I left because your quality was so terrible. I'm sorry, but I think your internet was terrible So Four people in the chat right there That's clear as 1080p. Thank you Going to the next slide. There is no next slide. So, um There'll be more information to come On some other things. I do have a meeting. I would like to have a meeting before I talk about a few other things Um, is this it? This is the generic talk screen. Yes. Welcome to wonderland so um Obviously we have some work to do with some audio equipment. Yeah, we're gonna have to set them all so that we're like This close to the microphone. Yeah Um, and by next week there our blueprint wallpaper will be here. So it'll look more like an actual set Um, this isn't my microphone. I don't want it down my throat That's the problem. I want to see what's happened with that microphone That makes me want to put it even further away. I don't want to know Um, but does anyone have any questions? We are going to do a hangout stream So we'll end this we're going to take a quick little food break. You know, look at me. I require a lot of food and quick quick Wow Someone's fired. I'm gonna um Two to ten feet. Yeah, so obviously we did something wrong.  I I don't really have anything to say. It's it's getting removed. Trust me. There's no scientific getting removed, but trust me Um Just trust me if I'm wrong, I'm wrong Um There's a chance I'll be wrong, but there's a really big chance I'm right and I'm not guessing either people I think some people think I'm guessing on extreme skyfire closing. No that that information was handed to me Yeah, you tell him right then. Yeah um I forgot about the hangout. Yeah, and we're gonna play hangman.  Why do you think you're on that side of the room?   That's you now. We got two of them. That's the problem I thought I was the sensitive one. He's the sensitive one. What'd you say? I didn't hear you One big one one small one I'm the skinniest one in this friend group Um, anyways, this is the professional we can be unprofessional in the hangout stream Okay, you guys ask us questions. Someone keeps asking is ryan still on the hangout streams. No, he's not This is the new team including syria No shade to him. That's just it's krega kiefer Jake syria kaden will appear jacob will appear Those are the only people that I am like In my friend group that I'll have on the stream. That's all I'm gonna say Oh, no, I'll get jacob's in here and jacob will not appear on the stream Sorry jacob Syria will be weekly. Um, he was he was gonna be here today guys syria is just Out doing something, you know conquering life. Um, he will be here next weekend. I'm sure he will What happened? Okay, I'm not looking at patreon questions. I'm so sorry How can they expand become a major destination given its real estate challenges? So that's a really good question And I'm not saying this to be shady because it's not a good question I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest. I let I hate this question, but I understand why it's being asked So I'm I'm out of you that sounds so mean but like what I'm trying to say is it's a good question because it's not a good question if that makes sense Wonderland actually doesn't have any real estate challenges So if you actually look at the plot of land that wonderland takes up It's got a lot of available real estate So they were able to successfully redesignate the plot of land over by the entrance on rutherford So they can now develop that land into a hotel if they want they got the forest next to splash works They got kingswood They got old attractions that need removing. They have action theater. They have the snoopy's racing railway plot of land that's available And they have in between wild beast and behind the bat They have the go karts There's a lot of available land for attractions at the park and then If absolutely need be I'm choking on my own burp They can remove the parking lot and build a parking garage on one side But that is not feasible like it's a really expensive project that I can't see them doing Where's white hair guy? Oh, that's am That's uncle That is uncle and that's you you cannot disrespect uncle. That's our amy. He's here. He's here in chat Uncle am Am For us with the wrench we for sure butchered that Hi, uncle amy. There's uncle am So anyone got any other questions I love that you're not mad at me. I didn't even want it to come across that way I'm so sorry when an underground parking lot be part of the hotel, especially if it's kingswood No, I don't think so. Um, it's very rare that the parking lot fills up other than firework days It would be interested to see what happens on firework days if they were to use some of the The parking lot, but I think that's why the park's been trying to work on public transit If extreme skyfire gets removed will it be scrapped or reused? Okay, kiefer. Would you like to touch on this from what you know? Um From what I understand. Can you just confirm yes or no for me extreme sky flyer is rented? Yes, so Sky coaster I think it goes by sky coaster LLC. I might be mistaken But they own all of the sky coasters. So it's all a park rental or on a lease So If they loan one up to a park for 25 years, it's at the park's responsibility to maintain it But sky coaster actually Owns it and gives the training and maintenance and stuff for it Uh, and it's up to someone at the park to communicate with sky coaster about it So once it's done it could either be scrapped if it's an older one usually like all the portable ones are gone Some of the older ones have been scrapped. Some of them have been relocated like there was one in vegas That one's at fun spot Orlando So it could be relocated If it is to stay in canada I in ontario I could see it maybe in clifton hill or something because clifton hill likes to have those Clickbaity things like go karts or whatever that would fit well there. I think Yeah, they would have to buy a new lease, but the physical sky coaster would be Given to them for that awesome Oh I'm pasting that there for my use in a second Essentially, hey, do you just anyone else have anything to do why multitask for a second? I have such a such a helpful team Craig has been awfully quiet this stream He's talking more actually than I was expecting Craig is trying not to be so gp I'm here for the hangout stream, man. He didn't know where kidsville is All right guys any last few questions before we end this and start the hangout stream where you guys can Don't play some games. There will be a break. Don't expect you to start Yeah, we're gonna take like a five ten minute break. I'm sure some of them need to use the washroom and eat I bought I bought drinks and food. I do feed them and then I'll lock them up in their cages after don't worry To move this microphone, um, hold on one second.  Here is my self promo So, um, our patreon my patreon's definitely learn some information every day So I've been flying the drone. So for example, they've been updated the last two days on daily updates on the drone sometimes Sometimes what do you think the brakes for man Sometimes I don't post the drone updates unless it's like worth posting But there is sometimes for example They were able to see something on top of the mountain that I haven't posted in a youtube video yet I will also be doing giveaways on the podcast to patreon's And we are working working on more ways for the patreon's to be implemented into the podcast Again, this was just a test stream for us to figure out audio issues so Yeah, we'll be getting our act together. Don't worry and join us in discord. I am so scared Because every time we do this there's always a problem So join us in discord the links right there. We have a pretty active VC to be honest active is an understatement. Yeah, it's been getting even more active at night And that's where I do a lot of my problem solving. It'll be funny. I'll join the the voice chat And I'm like guys guys guys guys. Look at this. Tell me what you see Or oh my god guys, I think I just saw this and let me literally spend all night Discussing it and trying to figure out what it is. Um, but yeah join our discord If you're over 16 join our VC But please don't be shy. We will ask your home park and ask you to talk So yeah join discord and become less shy and hang out with people I think that's it Yeah If you have any questions the hangout streams for that you guys can ask us questions even outside of wonderland We're going out to do something illegal after this After the hangout stream. Oh, we're ahead of schedule actually though We're not going anywhere Um, we're going to mexico Geez, that's exactly where we're going cancun Can you make it summer, please? I'm working on it. Um springs coming next week Will I have to talk to? Um, take me with you It's so fun. Okay. Awesome. I'm gonna end this we're gonna quickly eat I'm gonna quickly eat. They're gonna go to the washroom and we'll be back on the hangout stream Give us 10 minutes max. Okay set the timers yell at us if we're late


This webinar will be presented by Dr. Mohamed Nazma Saqib, and we will also be hosting his supervisor, Dr. Peter Hall. Dr. Saqib is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. He's also a foreign-trained physician from Bangladesh. His research interests involve bi-directional relationships between adiposity and brain health, as well as neuromodulation technologies. And Dr. Hall is a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo with a research emphasis on brain health, translational neuroscience, and behavioral aspects of disease prevention. So now I will pass it along to our presenters and specifically Dr. Saqib to start. Okay, thank you. Thank you everyone for joining in today and good afternoon. Today I'm going to present my research on the bi-directional associations between adiposity and cognitive function. At first I'd like to thank for this opportunity to present my research on the CLSA webinar series. So as I mentioned, I'll show you some of our recent findings from the CLSA and ABCD data analysis. So there are a lot of topics to cover. So without further ado, let's get into it. So this is the agenda for today. So at first I will give you some background information from the literature. Then I will discuss study one and two where we examined bi-directional associations between adiposity and cognitive function using CLSA data sets. So study one is the cross-sectional analysis of the CLSA baseline data set, and study two is the prospective analysis of the CLSA baseline and first follow-up data set. In the general discussion section, I'll show you some major findings from study one and two, and as well as I'll discuss some strength and limitations. And finally, at the end, I'll show you some of our recent findings from the ABCD data analysis where we examined bi-directional association among adolescent population. Okay, let's move on to background discussion. So let's talk about obesity and its connection with cognitive function for a minute. So the term adiposity indicates the degree of modified accumulation, whereas obesity indicates excessive pet accumulation that presents a risk to health. Obesity is a public health concern because it increases the risk of other chronic diseases as well as death. In literature, it was reported that obesity increases the risk of some other chronic diseases. For example, metabolic syndrome, tattoo diabetes malattice, cardiovascular disease, even it can cause premature death. Besides contributing to the development of these chronic diseases, obesity can adversely affect cognitive function. It was reported that obese individuals tend to have lower executive function, poor memory, they tend to perform poor on neurocognitive tasks, and long-standing obesity can also increase the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in life. So how can we measure adiposity? So there are a number of different accepted measures of adiposity, and each measure has its own advantages and limitations. Body mass index, it's the measure of weight adjusted for height, and it is calculated as weight in kilogram divided by height in the meter square. One limitation of body mass index is that it does not account for muscle mass in an individual. Therefore, it tends to overestimate adiposity in individuals who have higher muscle mass, for example, athletes. Also, it is not a very good measure of central adiposity. So with circumference, it's a good measure of central adiposity, but one problem with this measure is that there are a number of different measurement sites reported in the literature. I think eight different measurement sites are reported, and which could be problematic to compare central adiposity across studies. Next, waist to hip ratio, this is also a proxy measure of central adiposity. And again, as because it's a ratio of waist circumference and circumference, so this also can be influenced by different measurement sites of waist circumference. And dual energy extracts of geometry or the exchange short, it is often considered as a gold standard to measure fat mass. One problem is that it's it requires expensive instrument and time consuming. Therefore, it may not be suitable to use routinely in research and clinical settings. Okay, now I'd like to discuss two important concepts related to the bi-directionality. One is called brain is outcome perspective, and the other one is brain is predictor perspective. So let's look at the brain as outcome perspective first. So in brain as outcome perspective, brain is considered as outcome or end result or consequence of adversarial condition. For example, if an individual have adversarial condition like uncontrolled diabetes or hypertension, it could lead to cognitive impairment in future. So this is an example of brain as outcome perspective. So in the context of today's discussion, we can think brain as outcome perspective as an idea that baseline obesity predicts future cognitive impairments. A number of longitudinal and cross sectional study actually showed evidence for the existence of this brain as outcome perspective. And in medical literature, this view actually is predominant and brain health is almost always considered as an outcome of adversarial condition. As I mentioned, previous studies showed existence for short evidence for the existence of this brain as outcome perspective. And those studies reported that this association is predominantly observed in the domain of executive function, attention and memory. So executive function has several domain, for example, individual control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and each of these domain can be affected by the adverse effect of excess adiposity. Previous studies also reported that if individuals have obesity in midlife, it can substantially increase the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in late life. So it actually further strengthen the evidence for the existence of brain as outcome perspective. So as I mentioned, in literature, there are abundant evidence for the existence of this brain as outcome perspective. And meta-analysis of those studies also revealed similar finding. So one meta-analysis by young and colleague, these studies, these meta-analysis reported that always participants showed broad impairment in all domain of executive function, including innovation, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, as well as they showed impairment in some other cognitive domains, for example, verbal fluency, decision-making, and planning. So in that meta-analysis, you can see, obvious individual, they showed lower control in the inhibitory control domain of the executive function compared to their normal weight counterpart. Okay, that's all about brain as outcome perspective. Now let's move on to brain as predictor perspective. So in brain as predictor perspective, brain is considered as a predictor of adverse health condition. For example, if individuals have cognitive impairment, for example, executive function deficit, it could lead to unhealthy lifestyle. For example, sedentary behavior or unhealthy food choices. And in the long run, it could lead to the development of override and obesity. So this is an example of brain as predictor perspective. So in the context of today's discussion, we can see brain as predictor perspective as an idea that baseline cognitive impairments predict future weight gain. This view is less well explored in previous literature. However, a number of small scale studies and experimental studies showed evidence for the existence of this brain as predictor path. It is believed that a region of the brain called prefrontal cortex, which contain major nodes of executive function plays a significant role. In experimental studies, it was shown that if individuals, if dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that contain executive function is suppressed by inhibitory brain stimulation, it can result in increased consumption of calorie dense food. You can see in the figure. So this is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that contain major nodes of executive function. So experimentally suppressing this region of the brain using suppressive brain stimulation can result in increased consumption of the calorie dense food. So this basically suggests that if individuals have impact executive function, it could lead to the development of obesity by facilitating unhealthy dietary choices. Epithemological studies also showed similar finding. If individuals have lower executive function at baseline, they tend to present with higher adiposity at follow up. Okay, now I'd like to show you two study from our lab that demonstrated the existence of brain as predictor path. So this study by Lowy and colleagues published from our prevention neuroscience laboratory in 2018 in neuroimage. So in that study, 28 female right handed individual were recruited in the study and they received both stimulatory and inhibitory brains and they received both active and sham CTBS brain stimulation. So for your information, CTBS or continuous theta bus stimulation is a suppressive variant of brain stimulation that can temporarily reduce the cortical excitability. So in that study, it was shown that individuals after active CTBS brain stimulation that temporarily suppress executive function results in increased consumption of appetite food, but there is no changes on the control non-apetitive food. So this study actually suggests that CTBS induced attenuation of the left DLPFC in this apetitive snack food consumption. So this is another study from our lab by Sapathy and Hall. So this study was published in brain stimulation in 2019. So in that study, the joint effects of contextual cues and CTBS on eating while examined. So for that study, 107 participants were recruited and they were randomized into four different study conditions. So conditions are sham stimulation and inhibiting cues, sham stimulation and facilitating cues, active stimulation and inhibiting cues, and active stimulation and facilitating cues. And during session, participants received CTBS brain stimulation and after the brain stimulation, they had the opportunity to consume food in a test test. And this study showed that CTBS resulted in increased food consumption in the presence of facilitating cues, but not in the presence of inhibiting cues. So in brief, this study actually suggested that, suggested that stronger CTBS effects in the presence of facilitating cues. So to summarize, both of these two studies suggested that if individuals have a lower executive function, it may result in uncontrolled eating or consumption of calorie dense food, which could lead to a high-diposity in the long run. This is the last slide on brain aspect perspective. I just want to show you the findings from a meta-analysis here. So in that meta-analysis, it examined whether baseline executive function in children and adolescent can predict follow-up weight status. So this meta-analysis actually showed that if children have high executive function at baseline, they tend to present with lower adibosity at follow-up. Okay, now let's discuss some limitation of the previous research. So there is a lack of research using large-scale population-based datasets. So if you consider brain aspect or perspective, it is actually more true. So most of the brain aspect studies are small-scale experimental studies. So ideally, bi-directionally should be explored using large-scale population-based dataset. So previous studies also had a number of limitations. Most previous studies are unidirectional analysis on different samples. So basically, they examined either brain aspect or path or brain as outcome path on different sample. Therefore, it is not clear whether these two paths can happen simultaneously in an individual. And another limitation is lack of temporality. So a number of previous studies are cross-sectional in nature. So therefore, we cannot actually comment on directionality of the association. Many previous studies have sample size issues. So because of small sample size, those studies were not sufficiently powered to detect the small to medium-sized effects. Previous studies also had lack of measures on focal variables. So previous studies, they only examined very few cognitive domains or very few adibosity measures. Previous studies also had limitation in terms of potential compounders. So it is actually not clear whether the association between adibosity and cognitive function is independent or just because of adibosity-related comorbidities. Previous studies also did not explore mediation path in detail. And there is positive of research on this topic in the Canadian context. So it is actually not clear whether the association reported in earlier studies can also be generalized for Canadian population. Okay, based on the finding from the literature, this is our conceptual diagram and the bidirectional association model that we tried to explore in our series of studies on bidirectional association. So we actually anticipated that measures of cognitive function, for example, executive function, verbal memory and reaction time is bidirectionally associated with the indicators of adibosity such as BMI, Wester conference, Wester to HIP ratio and DXA. And we also anticipated that this association be mediated through health status mediators such as hypertension and diabetes and lifestyle mediators such as diet and exercise. So specifically for the brain as outcome perspective, we anticipated that this association be mediated through health status mediators. So adibosity, it would lead to the development of other health conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, which in turn can cause cognitive dysfunction. And for the brain as breakthrough perspective, so cognitive dysfunction can lead to unhealthy lifestyle behavior such as improper diet, sedentary lifestyle, which could ultimately contribute to the development of adibosity. And finally, we also expect that this association would be moderated by socioeconomic status because individuals from high socioeconomic status, they have more flexibility and resources on their dietary option and lifestyle behavior. Okay, now I'm going to discuss our study one. So this study is the cross-sectional analysis of the baseline CLSA dataset. So this study has been published in psychosomatic medicine. So let's talk about the objective and hypothesis of this study. So in the study, our objective was to examine the association between adibosity and cognitive function and test the potential mediation path. So we had several hypotheses. So our hypothesis is one that better score on test of cognitive function would be associated with lower adibosity. So our hypothesis two was that the bidirectional association, the aforementioned association are mediated through lifestyle behavior and medical condition. And finally, we hypothesize that the aforementioned association would be stronger for those of higher socioeconomic status. Okay, now I'd like to give you some information about the CLSA data collection. I think most of you already know about that. So CLSA is a long-term longitudinal study that started data collection in 2011. And baseline data collection was completed in 2015. And first follow-up data collection was completed in 2018. So CLSA has two cohort, tracking cohort, which consists of over 21,000 participants and CLSA comprehensive cohort, which consists of over 30,000 participants. So at the time of our analysis, we only had baseline and first follow-up datasets were available. And for our analysis, we only used CLSA comprehensive for our analysis. Okay, these are the study variables for study one. So our outcome variables are the adiabosity indicators.  So our cognitive explanatory variables were our cognitive indicators. So we selected stoop task, choice reaction time task, and animal fluency task to represent our cognitive function. So we adjusted our analysis for major socio-demographic variables, such as age, sex, ethnicity, income, education, residence, physical activity. So for the comorbidity, we created somatic comorbidity index, and neurologic comorbidity index, and use those index to adjust our analysis for comorbidity. So for mediators, we selected health condition like type 2 diabetes malatas and hypertension as mediators. And for lifestyle mediator, we selected physical activity, healthy and unhealthy diet as our mediators. Okay, now I'd like to give you some information about the cognitive measures we used in our analysis. So first is stoop task. So stoop task measure executive function. So in stoop task, there is two block congruent and incongruent blocks. So in the congruent block, participants are provided with color name, where color name and font name matches. For example, red is written in red ink. However, in the incongruent block, there is a mismatch between the color name and font name. For example, red is written in blue ink. So when there is a mismatch like that, the time required to identify color increase compared to the congruent condition. And stoop interference is calculated by taking the difference in completion time between incongruent block and congruent block. And higher stoop interference indicates lower executive function. Next is reaction time task. So this task measured the speed of visual information processing.  And higher reaction time indicates lower processing speed. So next is animal fluency task. In that task, participants are asked to name as many animals as they can in one minute. And individuals toward those who are cognitively sound tend to produce more awards compared to those who are not cognitively sound. And higher animal fluency task score indicates better verbal fluency. Okay, now let's move on to the statistical analysis. So for the study one, at first we conducted hierarchical multivariable linear regression. And we assess two models. So model one was the association between adiposity and the covariates. And model two was the association between adiposity and cognitive function while controlling for the effects of covariate. So for the mediation analysis, we used lifestyle variable, such as physical activity and diet and medical condition variables such as type two diabetes malignments and hypertension as potential mediators. And finally, we conducted moderation analysis by income groups. Okay, let's move on to the results for study one. So our analysis showed that hierarchical function was associated with lower adiposity by most matrices. And we also observed some significant mediation effects. For example, for decision between stroke interference and adiposity health conditions such as type two diabetes malignments and hypertension immersed as a significant mediator. Next, we also observed a significant moderation effects. So individuals from high socioeconomic status, individuals from high socioeconomic status showed stronger effect compared to those from low socioeconomic status. Okay, that's all about study one. So study one showed that cognitive function is associated with adiposity indices at the baseline level of the CLSA data. So our next step was to examine whether this association is bi-directional or not using CLSA baseline and first follow-up data set. So this study has already been published in Journal of Gerontology Medical Sciences. Okay, now let's move on to the objective and hypothesis for study one. So for this study, our objective was to examine the bidirectional association between cognitive function and adiposity and examine the potential mediation path. So we hypothesized that cognitive function was bidirectionally associated with adiposity such that higher baseline cognitive function would be associated with lower follow-up adiposity and vice versa. We also hypothesized that for the brain as outcome perspective, this association would be mediated through health status mediator such as blood pressure and diabetes and for the brain as breakthrough perspective, this association would be mediated through lifestyle mediators such as diet and exercise. We also hypothesized that middle-est individual would have stronger effect compared to those of older adults because older adults people are exposed to longer years of adverse effects of adiposity and other comorbidities. Okay, let's move on to methods. So as adiposity indicators for this study, we used body mass index and waist circumference. So our cognitive indicators were stoop task, choice reaction time task and animal fluency task. So we had same set of covariates, sex, ethnicity, income, education, residence, physical activity, comorbidity, and sleep duration. For mediators, we used type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, physical activity, healthy and unhealthy diets. So in that study, we applied some exclusion criteria. So basically those individuals whose first language was not English or French, so individuals who could not work without assistance or individuals who have cognitive, who have brain disorder that may impact cognitive functions such as dementia, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and multiple viruses were excluded from the baseline analysis, were excluded at baseline. So after applying this exclusion criteria, we had approximately 26,000 participants at baseline. So few participants were lost to follow-up. So at WEF2, we had little over 24,000 participants available for the analysis. Okay, now let's move on to the statistical analysis for study 2. So at first, we conducted multivariate, multivariable regression, and then we conducted cross-legged panel model analysis with latent variable modeling. So this is the figure of cross-legged panel model. So we observed that adiposity indicators, BMI and WEST circumference are strongly correlated. So we used these two as a latent adiposity construct. However, cognitive measures are poorly correlated. So basically, different cognitive measures are representing different cognitive domains. So therefore, we used cognitive measures separately in the analysis instead of making a latent construct. So for meditation analysis, we used lifestyle variable and medical condition variable, and we stratified all our analysis by age group, so two broad age group, middle-est and older adults. Okay, now let's move on to the results. Let's first look at the findings of multivariate, multivariable regression. For the brain-est outcome perspective, in middle-est adults, we observed that higher adiposity was associated with higher stroke interference, that means lower executive function and lower animal fluency task performance, that is lower verbal fluency. So finding is similar for older adults, except that higher adiposity was associated with better verbal fluency. So it actually indicates that in older adults, adiposity provides some protective effects on verbal fluency. For brain-est predictor perspective, we observed that higher stroke interference was associated with higher adiposity, and higher animal fluency task performance was associated with lower adiposity. So our findings are in the expected direction. But in older adults, we did not observe any significant effect for brain-est predictor perspective. Similar finding was emerged with cross-legged panel model analysis. So in that figure, dotted line indicates middle-est, whereas solid line indicates older adults. So for the brain-est predictor perspective, animal fluency was immersed as a significant outcome in older adults for adiposity. But in a direction that suggests adiposity provides some protection on verbal fluency, stroke interference was immersed as a significant outcome in middle-est adults. For brain-est predictor perspective, only stroke interference was immersed as a significant predictor of adiposity, but only in middle-est adults, not in older adults. So we observed bidirectional association here with stroke interference, that measured executive function, and only in middle-est, not in older adults. So next, move on to the mediation analysis. So for the brain-est outcome perspective, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and diabetes mellitus immersed as a significant mediator. And for brain-est predictor perspective, diet and pastries immersed as a significant predictor. Okay, this slide is just to summarize the cross-legged panel model finding. So for stroke interference, okay, in that figure, solid line indicates statistically significant path, and dotted line indicates non-significant path. So path B is the brain-est outcome path, and path C is the brain-est predictor path. So for stroke interference, both path B and both path C immersed as a significant in middle-est adults. So we observed bidirectional association here involving stroke interference and only in middle-est. For animal fluency, in older adults, only the brain-est outcome perspective immersed significant, but in a direction that suggests adiposity provides some protection on verbal fluency. And for mean reaction time, we did not observe any significant effect. Okay, now let's move on to the general discussion. So I'll summarize the major findings from our study one and two. So in study one, we observed that beta cognitive function is associated with lower adiposity by most matrices. For study two, we observed that in middle-est adults, adiposity is bidirectionally associated with executive function that is measured by stroke task. In older adults, only a brain-est outcome perspective immersed significant, such that higher adiposity was associated with better verbal fluency in older adults. For mediation analysis, we observed significant mediation effect for lifestyle variable and medical condition variable. Okay, now I'd like to show you some strength and limitations of analysis. So let's discuss the strength first. So we use large-scale population-based data sets in both of our study one and two, unlike many previous studies. Those are like small-scale studies with a small number of participants and not sufficiently powered to detect small to medium-sized effects. And our study two is a longitudinal analysis. So we can actually comment about directionality here. So what is the effect of baseline cognitive function on follow-up adiposity and vice versa? So in our analysis, we used multiple indices of adiposity and cognitive function. So therefore, we can actually comment that this association is not limited to any specific measures of adiposity or cognitive function. And we have, we had rich information on potential compounders, particularly the information on comorbidity. So we created comorbidity index and adjusted our analysis for those comorbidities. Okay, now let's move on to the limitations. So one major limitation is that prospective analysis were limited to only two waves of CLSA data. So as I mentioned, at the time of our analysis, we only had two waves of CLSA data and two waves of data may not be sufficient to properly quantify the effect size. And another problem was that shorter follow-up interval. So between baseline and first follow-up dataset, there was just three years of gap. And it may not be sufficient to properly quantify the cross-lake effects because we are expecting a gradual accumulative phenomena here. So the effects of adiposity on cognitive function and vice versa should be accumulated over time. So if we have a longer follow-up interval and more follow-up data, then we could actually would see more stronger effects compared to what we get here. And although we have very large sample size, population representative may not be perfect because we used only CLSA comprehensive cohort. And as because CLSA comprehensive cohort participants were recruited from the major urban center, it may not be entirely representative for all Canadians. And finally, cognitive domains examined within CLSA were not exhaustive. So for cognitive function, we use three domains. We assess three domains. And for prospective analysis, we had like two adiposity measures. So future studies should actually examine other cognitive domains using a comprehensive set of adiposity indices. Okay, so our study to actually show that there is bidirectionalization between adiposity and executive function in middle list errors. So our next step was to examine whether this association is also true for adolescent population or not. So we actually conducted this bidirectionalization analysis in a sample of adolescent population using ABCD dataset. So I'll be showing you now some of our recent findings from the ABCD data analysis. So this study is conditionally accepted in JAMA Open and currently in review now. So at first, I'd like to give you some information about the ABCD study. So ABCD is a multi site longitudinal study in the United States. And this study recruited approximately 12,000 children ages 9 to 10 year. And this study began data collection in 2018. And at the time of our data analysis, we have web one, two, three data sets wide available. Okay, now discuss the variable and findings of our ABCD analysis. So cognitive indicators of this study are the cognitive tasks included in the NIH toolbox cognitive battery. So we actually included five cognitive tasks in our analysis. So these are flanker tasks that measure executive function, pattern matching tasks that measure the speed of visual information processing, picture sequence task that measure episodic memory and picture vocabulary task and oral reading task. Adiposity indicators of this study were BMIZ score and WESTA conference. And we adjusted our analysis for major socio demographic variables. So for the results, so we conducted both multivariate, multivariable regression and cross like panel model analysis just like our study too. For brain as outcome perspective, we observed that higher BMIZ score was associated with lower picture sequence task performance that measure episodic memory. And higher WESTA conference was associated with better picture vocabulary task performance. For brain as breakthrough perspective, higher flanker task and picture sequence task performance was associated with lower adiposity. Similar finding was immersed with cross like panel model analysis. So for brain as outcome perspective, only pattern matching task and flanker task emerged as a significant outcome for the adiposity. For brain as breakthrough perspective, except the pattern matching task, rest of the cognitive tasks emerged as a significant predictor for adiposity. So we basically observed bi-directional association here using flanker task that measure executive function. Okay, this slide is just to summarize the cross-lect panel model finding for our ADCD data analysis. So for the flanker task and pattern matching task, brain as outcome perspective emerged as a significant and except pattern matching task, rest of the task emerged as a significant predictor for the brain as breakthrough perspective. So we observed bi-directional association here using flanker task but not with other task. So in the ADCD data sets, we have brain morphology data measured by structural MRI. So we used brain morphology as a mediator in our analysis and we observed few significant mediation effects here. So for the brain as outcome perspective, several brain morphology emerged as a significant mediator, for example, middle frontal gyrus thickness, inferior frontal gyrus thickness and the volume of middle frontal gyrus and the volume of lateral prefrontal cortex. For the brain as predictor perspective, only the thickness of lateral prefrontal cortex emerges as a significant predictor. Okay, so I'd like to wrap up by showing some implications and future directions here. So one of our limitations was that we had only two waves of data and only three years of follow-up interval. So feature studies should employ longer prospective data collection interval to more conclusively characterize the magnitude of cross-lect defects, ideally 10 years or more. So if we have like multiple waves of follow-up data and sufficiently enough follow-up interval, then we would see more stronger effect because we are expecting a accumulative nature here. The next is explore the extent of biorectionality using other cognitive domains. So in our analysis, we were able to include few cognitive domains, but future studies should include other cognitive domains. For example, memory attention and we should see whether those have any biorectionality or not. So for our prospective analysis and also for our abcd data, we were limited to use only DMI and Wester conference. So future studies should use a comprehensive set of adiposity measures, particularly DxA, which is considered as a goal standard for FETMAS assessment. So in our abcd analysis, we used brain morphology as a mediator only. So future studies should also explore the biorectionality using brain morphology features and functional new imaging. So in our both abcd and CLS analysis, we observed a biorectionalization using executive function. So we should actually explore the utility of executive function training in eating and weight loss interaction, particularly for those who have undergone bariatric surgery and explore the novel method of enhancing executive function using TMS. So TMS is a non-invasive brain stimulation technology that can be used to enhance executive function. So future studies should also explore this kind of novel method. Okay, that concludes my presentation. So I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Peter Hall for his constant support and guidance throughout my doctoral studies and also supporting me now as a postdoctoral researcher in his lab. I'm very thankful to my collaborators, Dr. Reza Ramazan and Dr. John Best and Dr. Mary Thompson for extending their expertise in statistical analysis. So I'm also thankful to all the participants and researchers associated with the CLS and abcd data sets. So for making these amazing resources for the researcher. And I'm also thankful to all the current and previous member of the prevention neuroscience laboratory. So it's really great to work with such a great group of people. Okay, thank you everyone for your attention today and listen patiently. So we'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you very much, Dr. Sakeem and Dr. Hall. I don't know if you, Dr. Hall, did you have anything you wanted to add before we move into questions or are you just the silent partner today? Mostly the silent partner, unless there are any specific questions that I can have my perspective. Well, I'll just remind everyone to use the Q&A box down at the bottom of the screen to post any questions. I just want to say I think this is a great example of use of longitudinal data and platform like the CLSA as we get more follow up data. I think, you know, having that 10 year minimum span to be able to look at issues like this and the aging process is, you know, that's just the power of it. So I think that's just a great example of this. So we do have one question from Bazma Ahmed. Great talk. Did you consider looking into depression, either diagnosis or treatment as a co-variable in your analysis, knowing the relation between depression and cognitive impairment, especially in older adults? So in terms of depression, I think we created Comorbidity Index and I think depression was one of the conditions that we included in our Comorbidity Index. So we actually already adjusted our analysis for depression and some, I think many chronic diseases. So in our Comorbidity Index, so we had somebody Comorbidity Index that includes, I think, 22 Comorbidities and Neurologic Comorbidity that includes four Neurologic Comorbidities. So our analysis are already adjusted for some of those Comorbidities. Great. Lots of compliments on your presentation today. So really great job. So Laura Anderson here at McMaster would like to know what did you do with people who are underweight and could there be a U-shaped association? Could you please repeat it again? What did you do with people who are underweight and could there be a U-shaped association? So for our obesity analysis, so now we actually do a sensitivity analysis by removing those who are underweight and we actually did not find any significant difference between these two analysis, like main analysis and analysis after excluding those underweights. So findings are almost similar. So yeah, we'll actually check our analysis with underweight and without underweight. So there is not much difference in the findings. So this is certainly a valid point and something that we have has been on our radar for both sets of analysis. The idea that people who are underweight may have because severe underweight is associated with cognitive performance decrements on some of these tasks in other research, both in older adults and in young adolescents and adolescents. And so in ABCD, as Nazma's pointed out, we did do a sensitivity analysis, removing those who are underweight and did not actually affect the pattern of findings. Honestly, I cannot recall what we did with CLSA specifically. We may have to get back to you. It seems to me we discussed this and tried something to deal with it. I'm not totally sure if that ended up in the reported paper or not, but certainly it's a good point, something that needs to be considered when considering adiposity and cognitive function. Next question is, was there a way to account for acute issues such as sleep deprivation, that they diet stress that may have affected cognitive ability? Also, was BMI a single point or is length of time with BMI considered? It might be easier to read that question in the Q&A. So in terms of sleep deprivation, it's a really good point. So sleep deprivation, it could affect cognitive function as well as it has shown association with adiposity in literature. So in our study one, we did not adjust it for sleep deprivation, but for our study two and our ABCD analysis, we used sleep deprivation as a co-period, and I think we accounted for those in our analysis already. What is the other part of the question? Stress. Stress as a second co-period. I believe we did not. Yeah, we did not actually adjusted our analysis for stress, I believe, yeah. Okay, hopefully that answers the question. There's a question that, just a reminder, to put the question in the Q&A box, but I do see a question from Cynthia in the chat box, so we'll ask that. She's wondering if you looked at any blood-based biomarkers. I don't think I saw that in your presentation, but maybe you, maybe I missed it or maybe you've done other work. So in our dataset, we actually did not have blood biomarkers. So like in future, actually, we'd like to check other mediation path. For example, metabolic syndrome, and we'd like to see the blood biomarker and how it's linked to the adipocytic adipocytic function. So it's something we want to do in future. So we have a follow-up question about the BMI. Was BMI a single point, or was length of time with BMI considered? That was the second part of the question we didn't answer. So I'm not sure if I understood this question properly. So BMI was collected at baseline datasets, I think as a single point collection, and also in the first follow-up dataset, BMI was collected, and we used BMI in our prospective analysis. We used BMI of first follow-up dataset, and BMI of baseline, and BMI of first follow-up dataset. We used this in our analysis as like our focal variable in our adipocytic indicator, as our adipocytic indicator. So I think certainly with more follow-up interval as a greater time lag, total time lag between baseline and final measurement, we'll have an opportunity to more comprehensively address this question, where we can actually approximate how much time someone may have lived with BMI. But we did examine this implicitly and almost explicitly in our discussion of how to interpret the findings of the ABCD study, which involves a nine and 10-year-olds baseline versus CLSA, which is older adults. And we found more evidence of bidirectionality in the older adult sample, sorry, in the middle-aged segment of the CLSA compared to the adolescents who really it's the brain as predictor pathway that's most consistent. And so the way that we discussed those findings was that for adolescents, there may be less evident brain health impacts of adiposity prospectively because they haven't lived with obesity very long. So we may have kids who have lived with it from months to years, not decades or more. Whereas by middle-aged people have potentially been obese for years to decades. And so you'd be more likely to see prospective facts of obesity on the brain when it's been kind of on the scene longer like that. So I think, yeah, we haven't sort of integrated that. I think the data limits our ability to do that in terms of a direct test of that. But in terms of comparing those different age groups, it's certainly how we conceptualize the difference in terms of where you say see the brain health impacts and where you don't in terms of age range. Well, I think that is all the questions. If anybody has any additional follow-up questions that you think of, I'm sure you could, you can definitely email the CLSA and we will follow up with our presenters or I believe the emails of doctors at keyboard and Dr. Hall were included. So I will wrap things up by just thanking you again for your excellent presentation. Again, lots of positive comments about the presentation of your slides and ease of understanding them. So I think you did a great job on that and our participants appreciate that. I'd like to remind everyone that the next data access application deadline is January 18th of 2023. Please visit our CLSA website under Data Access to review available data as well as additional details about the application process. Registration for our January CLSA webinar will be posted on our website at some point early in January. We actually do not have a topic confirmed for that webinar yet, so stay tuned for that. And finally, remember that the CLSA promotes this webinar series using the hashtag CLSAWebinar and we invite you to follow us also on Twitter at atclsa underscore ELCV. And I hope everybody has a restful holiday season, whatever you may be doing over the next few weeks, and we will see you in the new year.