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Published on: December 6, 2016
Altered cortical structure network in children with obstructive sleep apnea
Min-Hee Lee1, Sanghun Sin2, Seonjoo Lee3
1Institute of Human Genomic Study, College of Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
Insights
Children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) show altered brain network organization. This study reveals differences in cortical structure and connectivity in pediatric OSA patients compared to controls.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pediatric Neurology
- Sleep Medicine
Background:
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) involves recurrent airway collapse during sleep.
- This leads to intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation.
- These factors may alter brain structure and function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if obstructive sleep apnea in children reorganizes cortical structure.
- To examine changes in cortical thickness correlation between brain regions in pediatric OSA.
- To understand the etiology of OSA-related brain functional disorders.
Main Methods:
- Cortical structure networks were constructed using cortical thickness measurements.
- Data from 41 controls and 50 children with OSA were analyzed.
- Global (clustering coefficient, path length, small-worldness) and regional (nodal betweenness centrality) network properties were examined.
Main Results:
- Children with OSA exhibited increased clustering coefficients compared to controls.
- Lower nodal betweenness centrality was observed in specific left and right hemisphere regions in the OSA group.
- The OSA group had fewer and differently distributed brain network hubs.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric OSA is associated with altered global and regional cortical network characteristics.
- The findings suggest potential structural brain reorganization in children with OSA.
- This network analysis approach may aid in understanding OSA-related neurological impacts.
Study Objectives:
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by recurrent airway collapse during sleep, resulting in intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation that may contribute to alternations in brain structure and function. We hypothesized that OSA in children reorganizes and alters cortical structure, which can cause changes in cortical thickness correlation between brain regions across subjects.
Methods:
We constructed cortical structure networks based on cortical thickness measurements from 41 controls (age 15.54 ± 1.66 years, male 19) and 50 children with OSA (age 15.32 ± 1.65 years, male 29). The global (clustering coefficient [CC], path length, and small-worldness) and regional (nodal betweenness centrality, NBC) network properties and hub region distributions were examined between groups.
Results:
We found increased CCs in OSA compared to controls across a wide range of network densities (p-value < .05) and lower NBC area under the curve in left caudal anterior cingulate, left caudal middle frontal, left fusiform, left transverse temporal, right pars opercularis, and right precentral gyri (p-value < .05). In addition, while most of the hub regions were the same between groups, the OSA group had fewer hub regions and a different hub distribution compared to controls.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that children with OSA exhibit altered global and regional network characteristics compared to healthy controls. Our approach to the investigation of cortical structure in children with OSA could prove useful in understanding the etiology of OSA-related brain functional disorders.
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