Open AccessAge-related abnormalities of thalamic shape and dynamic functional connectivity after three hours of sleep restriction
Author(s) -
Zhiliang Long,
Jia Zhao,
Danni Chen,
Xu Lei
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
peerj
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.927
H-Index - 70
ISSN - 2167-8359
DOI - 10.7717/peerj.10751
Subject(s) - thalamus , sleep deprivation , neuroscience , neuroscience of sleep , medicine , sleep (system call) , psychology , non rapid eye movement sleep , electroencephalography , cognition , computer science , operating system
Background Previous neuroimaging studies have detected abnormal activation and intrinsic functional connectivity of the thalamus after total sleep deprivation. However, very few studies have investigated age-related changes in the dynamic functional connectivity of the thalamus and the abnormalities in the thalamic shape following partial sleep deprivation. Methods Fifty-five participants consisting of 23 old adults (mean age: 68.8 years) and 32 young adults (mean age: 23.5 years) were included in current study. A vertex-based shape analysis and a dynamic functional connectivity analysis were used to evaluate the age-dependent structural and functional abnormalities after three hours of sleep restriction. Results Shape analysis revealed the significant main effect of deprivation with local atrophy in the left thalamus. In addition, we observed a significant age deprivation interaction effect with reduced variability of functional connectivity between the left thalamus and the left superior parietal cortex following sleep restriction. This reduction was found only in young adults. Moreover, a significantly negative linear correlation was observed between the insomnia severity index and the changes of variability (post-deprivation minus pre-deprivation) in the functional connectivity of the left thalamus with the left superior parietal cortex. Conclusions The results indicated that three hours of sleep restriction could affect both the thalamic structure and its functional dynamics. They also highlighted the role of age in studies of sleep deprivation.