Feng Sitong, Wu Ziyao, Zheng Sisi, Dong Linrui, Jia Hongxiao, Ning Yanzhe
Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & National Center for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Nat Sci Sleep. 2024 Jul 29;16:1109-1118. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S472323. eCollection 2024.
The thalamus plays a critical role in attentional maintenance. Previous studies have revealed the dysfunction of the thalamus in attention decline after acute sleep deprivation (SD). However, the functional connectivity (FC) between the thalamus subregions and cortical regions underlying attentional impairment after acute SD remains unclear. Here, we aimed to probe the relationship between attentional function and the altered thalamocortical FC after acute SD.
In this study, 25 healthy participants with regular sleep conducted an attentional network test and received a resting-state fMRI scan before and after 24 hours of SD. Then, we analyzed the FC between the thalamus and cerebrum and relationships with attentional function in the enrolled subjects.
Our results showed that the participants showed a significantly lower alerting effect, a higher executive effect, and lower accuracy after acute SD. Compared to the rested wakefulness state, we observed decreased FCs between the "somatosensory" thalamic seed and left frontal pole, right frontal pole, left middle temporal gyrus (posterior division), and right middle temporal gyrus (posterior division). Furthermore, the reduced FC between the right middle temporal gyrus and "somatosensory" thalamic seed was negatively associated with the change in orienting effect of the participants.
Our findings reveal that the disrupted FC between thalamus subregions and cortical regions may contribute to impaired attention after SD.
丘脑在注意力维持中起关键作用。先前的研究已经揭示了急性睡眠剥夺（SD）后丘脑在注意力下降方面的功能障碍。然而，急性SD后丘脑亚区域与注意力受损相关的皮质区域之间的功能连接（FC）仍不清楚。在此，我们旨在探究急性SD后注意力功能与丘脑皮质FC改变之间的关系。
在本研究中，25名睡眠规律的健康参与者进行了注意力网络测试，并在24小时SD前后接受了静息态功能磁共振成像扫描。然后，我们分析了纳入受试者丘脑与大脑之间的FC以及与注意力功能的关系。
我们的结果表明，参与者在急性SD后警觉效应显著降低，执行效应升高，准确性降低。与清醒休息状态相比，我们观察到“体感”丘脑种子点与左额极、右额极、左颞中回（后段）和右颞中回（后段）之间的FC降低。此外，右颞中回与“体感”丘脑种子点之间FC的降低与参与者定向效应的变化呈负相关。
我们的研究结果表明，丘脑亚区域与皮质区域之间FC的破坏可能导致SD后注意力受损。
