The association of sleep and cortical thickness in mild cognitive impairment

Nárlon C Boa Sorte Silva; Ryan S Falck; Patrick C Y Chan; Daria Tai; Daniel Backhouse; Ryan Stein; Teresa Liu-Ambrose

doi:10.1016/j.exger.2022.111923

The association of sleep and cortical thickness in mild cognitive impairment

Exp Gerontol. 2022 Oct 1:167:111923. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2022.111923. Epub 2022 Aug 10.

Authors

Nárlon C Boa Sorte Silva¹, Ryan S Falck¹, Patrick C Y Chan¹, Daria Tai¹, Daniel Backhouse¹, Ryan Stein¹, Teresa Liu-Ambrose²

Affiliations

¹ Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
² Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Electronic address: teresa.ambrose@ubc.ca.

PMID: 35963454
DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2022.111923

Abstract

We investigated whether device-measured sleep parameters are associated with cortical thickness in older adults with probable mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We performed a cross-sectional, exploratory analysis of sleep and structural MRI data. Sleep data were collected with MotionWatch8© actigraphy over 7 days. We computed average and variability for sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and fragmentation index. T1-weighted MRI scans were used to measure cortical thickness in FreeSurfer. We employed surface-based analysis to determine the association between sleep measures and cortical thickness, adjusting for age, sex, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score, and sleep medication use. Our sample included 113 participants (age = 73.1 [5.7], female = 72 [63.7 %]). Higher fragmentation index variability predicted lower cortical thickness in the left superior frontal gyrus (cluster size = 970.9 mm², cluster-wise p = 0.017, cortical thickness range = 2.1 mm² to 3.0 mm²), adjusting for age, sex, MoCA, and sleep medication. Our results suggest that higher variability in sleep fragmentation, an indicator of irregular sleep pattern, is linked to lower cortical thickness. Future longitudinal studies are needed to determine the directionality of these associations.

Keywords: Aging; Community-dwelling individuals; Cortex; Memory impairment; Sleep variability.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Actigraphy
Aged
Cognitive Dysfunction* / diagnostic imaging
Cognitive Dysfunction* / psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Mental Status and Dementia Tests
Sleep