Altered Functional Connectivity of the Thalamus Subregions Associated with Impaired Attention After Sleep Deprivation
Sitong Feng1,2, Ziyao Wu1,2, Sisi Zheng1,2
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & National Center for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
The thalamus plays a critical role in attentional maintenance. Previous studies have revealed the dysfunction of the thalamus in attention decline after acute sleep deprivation (SD). However, the functional connectivity (FC) between the thalamus subregions and cortical regions underlying attentional impairment after acute SD remains unclear. Here, we aimed to probe the relationship between attentional function and the altered thalamocortical FC after acute SD.
Methods:
In this study, 25 healthy participants with regular sleep conducted an attentional network test and received a resting-state fMRI scan before and after 24 hours of SD. Then, we analyzed the FC between the thalamus and cerebrum and relationships with attentional function in the enrolled subjects.
Results:
Our results showed that the participants showed a significantly lower alerting effect, a higher executive effect, and lower accuracy after acute SD. Compared to the rested wakefulness state, we observed decreased FCs between the "somatosensory" thalamic seed and left frontal pole, right frontal pole, left middle temporal gyrus (posterior division), and right middle temporal gyrus (posterior division). Furthermore, the reduced FC between the right middle temporal gyrus and "somatosensory" thalamic seed was negatively associated with the change in orienting effect of the participants.
Conclusion:
Our findings reveal that the disrupted FC between thalamus subregions and cortical regions may contribute to impaired attention after SD.
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