Disrupted frontostriatal connectivity in primary insomnia: a DTI study.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Sleep Medicine
• Neurology

Background:

• Sleep-wake transition dysfunction is linked to primary insomnia (PI) pathology.
• Brain circuits connecting the striatum and cortex are known to regulate sleep-wake transitions.
• Limited research exists on striatum-centered circuit structural connectivity in PI patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the structural connectivity of striatum-centered circuits in patients with primary insomnia (PI).
• To explore the relationship between structural connectivity and sleep quality in PI.
• To identify potential neuroimaging biomarkers for PI.

Main Methods:

• Used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with seed-based classification and probabilistic tractography.
• Focused on striatum-centered circuits with 10 predefined target regions.
• Compared track strengths between 22 PI patients and 30 healthy controls (HC).
• Utilized the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality.

Main Results:

• Patients with PI exhibited lower track strengths in specific frontostriatal circuits, including left striatum-ACC, left striatum-dACC, left striatum-Hippocampus, and right striatum-Hippocampus, compared to HC.
• Lower track strengths in these circuits were negatively correlated with PSQI scores.
• Findings indicate altered system-level structural connections in PI.

Conclusions:

• Reduced structural connectivity in frontostriatal circuits is observed in patients with primary insomnia.
• DTI-derived track strengths of frontostriatal circuits may serve as potential neuroimaging biomarkers for assessing sleep quality in PI.
• This study highlights the role of structural brain network integrity in the pathology of primary insomnia.