Abstract
Insomnia is characterized by sensory hypersensitivity and cognitive impairments. Recent work has identified the insula as a central brain region involved in both bottom-up gating of sensory information and top-down cognitive control. However, the specific relationships between insular subregion connectivity and emotional and cognitive functions remain unclear. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were obtained from 25 healthy participants with sleep complaints (HPS) and 25 age-, gender- and educational level-matched healthy participants without insomnia complaints (HP). We performed insular subregion (ventral anterior, dorsal anterior and posterior) functional connectivity (FC) analyses, and cognitive function was measured with several validated test procedures (e.g., the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test [WCST], Continuous Performance Test [CPT] and Trail making Test [TMT]). There were no significant differences between the two groups for WCST, CPT and TMT scores. The HPS group showed enhanced connectivity from the right posterior insula (R-PI) to the left postcentral gyrus (L-postCG) compared to HP group. WCST random errors (RE), sleep disturbance scores and HAMA scores correlated with this connectivity measurement in both HP and HPS groups. Our results provide direct evidence that the posterior insula (PI) synchronizes with sensorimotor areas to detect homeostatic changes and suggest that alteration of the latter is related to executive dysfunction in subjects with insomnia.
Highlights
Insomnia and other sleep disorders are common clinical problems in primary health care and affect the health, safety and quality of life even in otherwise healthy individuals (Moore, 2012)
We examined the association between abnormal functional connectivity (FC) measurements and clinical scores
Our results suggest that healthy participants with insomnia complaints have increased insular connectivity with sensorimotor brain regions
Summary
Insomnia and other sleep disorders are common clinical problems in primary health care and affect the health, safety and quality of life even in otherwise healthy individuals (Moore, 2012). Insula-Sensorimotor Connectivity and Cognitive Function a lasting impact on intrinsic brain activity (Buzsáki and Watson, 2012). Drummond et al (2013) demonstrated that subjects with primary insomnia have reduced right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) modulation relative to good sleepers while performing an N-back working memory task. Pang et al (2017) reported negative correlations between the functional connectivity (FC) strength within the default mode network (DMN) and Mini-Mental State Examination scores in chronic insomnia disorders. Wang et al (2017) reported that the primary insomnia patients showed decreased connectivity between the left insula and a number of visual cognitive regions, including the right fusiform. Sleep disturbance is associated with cognitive impairments, the potential relationship between its neurobiological mechanism and cognitive functions in healthy participants with insomnia complaints (HPS) remains clear
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