Short strides to important findings: A short interval longitudinal study of sleep quality, psychological distress and microstructure changes to the uncinate fasciculus in early adolescents.

BACKGROUND

Developmental studies have shown adolescence is a period of ongoing white matter (WM) development, reduced sleep quality and the onset of many mental disorders. Findings indicate the WM development of the uncinate fasciculus (UF), a WM tract suggested to play a key role in mental disorders, continues throughout adolescence. While these studies provide valuable information, they are limited by long intervals between scans (1 to 4 years) leaving researchers and clinicians to infer what may be occurring between time-points. To allow inferences to be made regarding the impact that sleep quality may be having on WM development, longitudinal studies with much shorter between-scan intervals are required.

METHODS

The current study reports longitudinal data of self-reported sleep quality (PSQI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of WM development and psychological distress (K10) for n = 64 early adolescents spanning the first twelve months (four time-points; Baseline, 4, 8, & 12 months) of the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS) study currently underway at the Thompson Institute.

RESULTS

Generalised Estimating Equation analysis showed a significant relationship between sleep quality and psychological distress over the four time-points. Reduced radial diffusivity and increased fractional anisotropy of the UF is also reported with increasing age suggesting that ongoing myelination is occurring. Adding sleep quality to the model, however, negatively impacted this myelination process.

CONCLUSION

These findings represent an important step towards elucidating how sleep, psychological distress and maturation of the UF may co-develop during early adolescence.