A first-of-its-kind study has found that ‘skinny fat’ — the combination of low muscle mass and strength in the context of high fat mass — may be an important predictor of cognitive performance in older adults. Using data from a series of community-based aging and memory studies, researchers assessed the relationship of sarcopenic obesity or ‘skinny fat’ with performance on various cognition tests. Results show that sarcopenic obesity was associated with the lowest performance on global cognition.