Morphological and Age-Related Changes in the Narcolepsy Brain

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder affecting sleep-wake regulation.
• Previous research suggests potential brain structural abnormalities in narcolepsy, but detailed cortical changes remain under investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cortical morphological changes in narcolepsy patients using surface-based morphometry.
• To explore the relationship between brain morphology, sleepiness severity, and functional connectivity.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-resolution 3T anatomical and resting-state functional MRI scans from 51 narcolepsy patients and 60 healthy controls.
• Calculated vertex-level cortical thickness (CT), gyrification, and voxel-wise functional connectivity.
• Analyzed differences between adolescent and adult narcolepsy patients and correlated findings with clinical symptoms.

Main Results:

• Adolescent narcolepsy patients exhibited decreased CT in frontal cortex and precuneus, alongside altered gyrification in multiple lobes.
• Adult narcolepsy showed increased gyrification in temporal and frontal lobes.
• Increased gyrification correlated with reduced long-range functional connectivity; altered morphology was linked to sleepiness severity, hallucinations, and age of onset.

Conclusions:

• Narcolepsy significantly impacts brain morphology, with distinct patterns observed in adolescents and adults.
• Altered cortical thickness and gyrification are associated with clinical features of narcolepsy, including sleepiness and hallucinations.
• These morphological changes may represent a persistent impact of narcolepsy on brain development from adolescence into young adulthood.