Neural correlates of sleep quality in children: Sex-specific associations shown by brain diffusion tractography

Sleep quality is important for healthy growth and development of children. We aimed to identify associations between sleep disturbances in healthy children without clinical diagnosis of sleep disorders and brain white matter (WM) microstructure using an advanced diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) based tractography analysis, and to explore whether there are sex differences in these associations.

Brain DW-MRI data were collected from sixty-two 8-year-old children (28 boys, 34 girls) whose parents also completed Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). Track-weighted imaging (TWI) measures were computed from the DW-MRI data for 37 WM tracts in each subject. Sex-specific partial correlation analyses were performed to evaluate correlations between TWI measures and a set of sleep disturbance scores derived from the CSHQ.

Significant correlations (P < .05, FDR-corrected; r: .48-.67) were identified in 13 WM tracts between TWI and sleep disturbance scores. Sexually dimorphic differences in correlations between sleep disturbance scores and WM microstructure measurements were observed. Specifically, in boys, daytime sleepiness positively correlated with track-weighted mean or radial diffusivity in 10 WM tracts (bilateral arcuate fasciculus, left cingulum, right middle longitudinal fasciculus, and three bilateral segments of superior longitudinal fasciculus). In girls, total CSHQ score, night walking, or sleep onset delay negatively correlated with track-weighted fractional anisotropy or axial diffusivity in 4 WM tracts (bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus).

The findings suggest that sleep disturbances without clinical diagnosis of sleep disorders are associated with lower WM microstructural integrity in children. Additionally, the associations possess unique patterns in boys and girls.