Wu Ziyao, Feng Sitong, Li Kuangshi, Dong Linrui, Zhang Liang, Ning Yanzhe, Yin Dongqing
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. 2025 May 21;17:989-1001. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S503303. eCollection 2025.
Previous studies on shift work disorder (SWD) have revealed altered functional and structural brain networks underlying attention decline. However, changes in structure-function coupling (SFC) and their relationship with attention decline remain unknown. This study aimed to examine the role of changed SFC in abnormal attentional network function in SWD.
Thirty-four patients with SWD and thirty-two healthy controls were recruited. All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans. All participants underwent an attentional network test to evaluate their functions. Finally, Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted to analyze the association between aberrant attentional network function and altered structural and functional connectivity (SC-FC) coupling in patients with SWD.
Compared to healthy subjects, decreased alerting and executive functions were found in patients with SWD. In addition, we observed decreased SC-FC coupling in patients with SWD, specifically in the left anterior cingulate gyrus (T = -3.6449, = 0.0003), central opercular cortex (T = -3.7187, = 0.0002), middle frontal gyrus (T = -3.8342, = 0.0001), and parietal operculum cortex (T = -3.6121, = 0.0003), compared with healthy subjects. Better altering performance was significantly associated with lower SC-FC coupling in the anterior cingulate gyrus of patients with SWD (r = -0.51, = 0.002).
Our findings unravel that the decreased SC-FC coupling in the anterior cingulate gyrus may contribute to the impaired altering network function in SWD, which can further understand the neural mechanisms of impaired attention in SWD and inform a potentially therapeutic intervention for SWD patients.
先前关于轮班工作障碍（SWD）的研究已经揭示了注意力下降背后大脑功能和结构网络的改变。然而，结构-功能耦合（SFC）的变化及其与注意力下降的关系仍然未知。本研究旨在探讨SFC变化在SWD异常注意力网络功能中的作用。
招募了34名SWD患者和32名健康对照者。所有参与者均接受静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和扩散张量成像（DTI）扫描。所有参与者均接受注意力网络测试以评估其功能。最后，进行Pearson相关分析，以分析SWD患者异常注意力网络功能与结构和功能连接（SC-FC）耦合改变之间的关联。
与健康受试者相比，SWD患者的警觉和执行功能下降。此外，我们观察到SWD患者的SC-FC耦合降低，特别是在左前扣带回（T = -3.6449，P = 0.0003）、中央岛盖皮质（T = -3.7187，P = 0.0002）、额中回（T = -3.8342，P = 0.0001）和顶岛盖皮质（T = -3.6121，P = 0.0003），与健康受试者相比。SWD患者前扣带回中更好的改变表现与较低的SC-FC耦合显著相关（r = -0.51，P = 0.002）。
我们的研究结果表明，前扣带回中SC-FC耦合的降低可能导致SWD中改变网络功能受损，这可以进一步理解SWD中注意力受损的神经机制，并为SWD患者提供潜在的治疗干预措施。
