Cortical morphology of insomnia with objective short sleep duration phenotype

The insomnia disorder subtype characterized by objective short sleep duration (ISS) is associated with greater biological severity compared to the phenotype with objective normal sleep duration (INS). This study aimed to examine differences in cortical morphology specific to the ISS subtype.

In this cross-sectional analysis, 55 participants diagnosed with insomnia disorder were enrolled, including 22 individuals identified as having the ISS phenotype. High-resolution T1-weighted structural MRI scans were acquired for all subjects using a 3.0 Tesla scanner. Cortical structural features were evaluated via surface-based morphometry (SBM).

The ISS phenotype exhibited greater cortical thickness than the INS phenotype in the right lateral orbital frontal cortex (p = 0.01), right postcentral gyrus (p = 0.001), right inferior temporal gyrus (p = 0.009), right superior frontal gyrus (p<0.001), right (p = 0.026) and left (p<0.001) paracentral lobules, respectively. The differences were not significant in gray matter volume, gyrification index, sulcus depth, and fractal dimension. Pearson's correlation coefficients analyses indicated negative correlations between cortical thickness and total sleep duration.

Our preliminary findings indicate potential links between sleep duration and regional cortical thickness alterations in individuals with the ISS phenotype. Importantly, the current data cannot establish a definitive relationship, which necessitates rigorous validation in larger-scale investigations.