Dysfunction of the NAc-mPFC circuit in insomnia disorder

Jan 5, 2021NeuroImage. Clinical

Problems in the reward-to-thinking brain circuit in insomnia

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Insomnia disorder patients exhibited a significantly increased volume of the right nucleus accumbens compared to healthy controls.

Increased resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) was observed between the nucleus accumbens and several brain regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, in insomnia disorder patients.
Decreased RSFC was noted between the nucleus accumbens and regions such as the occipital gyrus and temporal gyrus in insomnia disorder patients.
The strength of increased RSFC between the bilateral nucleus accumbens and left medial prefrontal cortex was significantly correlated with sleep quality scores measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in insomnia disorder patients.
Dysfunctions in the nucleus accumbens-medial prefrontal cortex circuit are associated with sleep quality in insomnia disorder patients.

AI simplified

BACKGROUND: Insomnia disorder (ID) is a prevalent sleep disorder, which seriously affects people's daily life and was found to be associated with increased frequency of sleep stage shifts. Previous findings had revealed the critical role of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in sleep-wake transition. However, the neuroimaging studies of the NAc in patients with ID have been rare. We hypothesized that structural and functional abnormalities of the NAc would be implicated in ID.

METHODS: Twenty-six ID patients and 36 matched healthy controls (HC) were included in the current study. The volumes and corresponding resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the bilateral NAc were compared between the two groups. The abnormal RSFC in ID were then correlated with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

RESULTS: Compared with HC, ID patients showed significantly increased volume of right NAc. Several brain regions showed increased RSFC with the NAc in ID patients, such as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), caudate and putamen. Meanwhile, the occipital gyrus and temporal gyrus showed decreased RSFC with the NAc. Additionally, the increased RSFC strength between bilateral NAc and left mPFC was significant correlated with PSQI scores in ID patients.

CONCLUSION: Dysfunctions of the NAc-mPFC circuit were found in ID patients, which were associated with sleep quality measured by PSQI. The two patterns of increase and decrease of RSFC in ID patients observed in our study may reflect the state of hyperarousal and potential impairment of cognitive function in the patients, respectively. It is hoped that our study focusing on NAc-mPFC circuits could provide new insights for the neural mechanisms of ID and potential novel therapeutic targets for treatment of ID patients.

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license. Use the link below to read it at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

Dysfunction of the NAc-mPFC circuit in insomnia disorder

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief