To assess prefrontal brain network abnormality in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), resting-state functional near infrared spectroscopy (rs-fNIRS) was used to evaluate 52 subjects, including 27 with OSA and 25 healthy controls (HC). The study found that patients with OSA had a decreased connection edge number, particularly in the connection between the right medial frontal cortex (MFG-R) and other right-hemisphere regions. Graph-based analysis also revealed that patients with OSA had a lower global efficiency, local efficiency, and clustering coefficient than the HC group. Additionally, the study found a significant positive correlation between the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score and both the connection edge number and the graph-based indicators in patients with OSA. These preliminary results suggest that prefrontal rs-fNIRS could be a useful tool for objectively and quantitatively assessing cognitive function impairment in patients with OSA.
Keywords: functional near infrared spectroscopy; graph theory; obstructive sleep apnea; prefrontal cortex; resting-state functional connectivity.
© 2023 European Sleep Research Society.