University of California, Berkeley.
Stanford University.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Apr;30(4):565-578. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01225. Epub 2017 Dec 15.
Insufficient sleep is a known trigger of anxiety. Nevertheless, not everyone experiences these effects to the same extent. One determining factor is sex, wherein women experience a greater anxiogenic impact in response to sleep loss than men. However, the underlying brain mechanism(s) governing this sleep-loss-induced anxiety increase, including the markedly different reaction in women and men, is unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that structural brain morphology in a discrete network of emotion-relevant regions represents one such explanatory factor. Healthy participants were assessed across sleep-rested and sleep-deprived conditions, with brain structure quantified using gray matter volume measures. Sleep loss triggered greater levels of anxiety in women compared with men. Reduced gray matter volume in the anterior insula and lateral orbitofrontal cortex predicted the anxiogenic impact of sleep loss in women, yet predicted resilience in men, and did so with high discrimination accuracy. In contrast, gray matter volume in ventromedial prefrontal cortex predicted the anxiogenic impact of sleep loss in both men and women. Structural human brain morphology therefore appears to represent one mechanistic pathway (and possible biomarker) determining anxiety vulnerability to sleep loss-a discovery that may help explain the higher prevalence of sleep disruption and anxiety in women.
睡眠不足是已知的焦虑诱因。然而，并非每个人都会受到同样程度的影响。一个决定因素是性别，女性在睡眠不足时比男性更容易产生焦虑。但是，导致这种睡眠不足引起的焦虑增加的潜在大脑机制尚不清楚，包括女性和男性的明显不同反应。在这里，我们测试了这样一个假设，即情绪相关区域的离散网络中的结构脑形态代表了这样一个解释因素。健康参与者在睡眠充足和睡眠不足的条件下进行评估，使用灰质体积测量来量化大脑结构。与男性相比，睡眠不足会导致女性的焦虑水平更高。前岛叶和外侧眶额皮层的灰质体积减少预测了女性睡眠不足的焦虑影响，但预测了男性的适应力，并且具有很高的区分准确性。相比之下，腹内侧前额叶皮层的灰质体积预测了男性和女性睡眠不足的焦虑影响。因此，人类大脑结构似乎代表了一种确定对睡眠不足的焦虑易感性的机制途径（和可能的生物标志物）——这一发现可能有助于解释女性中更高的睡眠中断和焦虑发生率。
