School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China; Department of Neurology, The Secondary Medical Center, Sleep Medicine Research Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China.
Department of Neurology, The Secondary Medical Center, Sleep Medicine Research Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China.
Behav Brain Res. 2021 Jul 9;409:113321. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113321. Epub 2021 Apr 25.
Sleep deprivation can markedly influence vigilant attention. The nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM), the main source of cholinergic projections to the cortex, plays an important role in wakefulness maintenance and attention control. However, the involvement of NBM in attentional impairments after total sleep deprivation (TSD) has yet to be established. The purpose of this study is to investigate the alterations in NBM functional connectivity and its association with the attentional performance following TSD.
Thirty healthy adult males were recruited in the study. Participants underwent two resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans, once in rested wakefulness (RW) and once after 36 h of TSD. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis was performed using rs-fMRI data for the left and right NBM. The vigilant attention was measured using a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT). Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between altered NBM functional connectivity and changed PVT performance after TSD.
Compared to RW, enhanced functional connectivity was observed between right NBM and bilateral thalamus and cingulate cortex, while reduced functional connectivity was observed between left NBM and right superior parietal lobule following TSD. Moreover, altered NBM functional connectivity with the left anterior cingulate cortex was negatively correlated with PVT performance after TSD.
Our results suggest that the disrupted NBM-related cholinergic circuit highlights an important role in attentional performance after TSD. The enhanced NBM functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex may act as neural signatures for attentional deficits induced by sleep deprivation.
睡眠剥夺会显著影响警觉性注意力。基底前脑核（NBM）是皮质胆碱能投射的主要来源，在维持清醒和注意力控制方面发挥着重要作用。然而，NBM 在完全睡眠剥夺（TSD）后注意力损伤中的作用尚未确定。本研究旨在探讨 NBM 功能连接的变化及其与 TSD 后注意力表现的关系。
本研究共纳入 30 名健康成年男性。参与者在静息觉醒（RW）和 TSD 36 小时后分别进行了两次静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）扫描。使用 rs-fMRI 数据对左、右 NBM 进行基于种子的功能连接分析。使用精神运动警觉测试（PVT）测量警觉性注意力。此外，还进行了 Pearson 相关分析，以探讨 TSD 后 NBM 功能连接变化与 PVT 表现变化之间的关系。
与 RW 相比，TSD 后右 NBM 与双侧丘脑和扣带回之间的功能连接增强，而左 NBM 与右侧顶叶上回之间的功能连接减弱。此外，NBM 与左前扣带回的功能连接改变与 TSD 后 PVT 表现呈负相关。
我们的研究结果表明，破坏的 NBM 相关胆碱能回路在 TSD 后注意力表现中起着重要作用。NBM 与前扣带回之间增强的功能连接可能是睡眠剥夺引起注意力缺陷的神经特征。
