Abstract
Sleep has been suggested to contribute to myelinogenesis and associated structural changes in the brain. As a principal hallmark of sleep, slow-wave activity (SWA) is homeostatically regulated but also differs between indi-viduals. Besides its homeostatic function, SWA topography is suggested to reflect processes of brain maturation. Here, we assessed whether interindividual differences in sleep SWA and its homeostatic response to sleep manip-ulations are associated with in-vivo myelin estimates in a sample of healthy young men. Two hundred twenty-six participants (18-31 y.) underwent an in-lab protocol in which SWA was assessed at baseline (BAS), after sleep deprivation (high homeostatic sleep pressure, HSP) and after sleep saturation (low homeostatic sleep pressure, LSP). Early-night frontal SWA, the frontal-occipital SWA ratio, as well as the overnight exponential SWA decay were computed over sleep conditions. Semi-quantitative magnetization transfer saturation maps (MTsat), provid-ing markers for myelin content, were acquired during a separate laboratory visit. Early-night frontal SWA was negatively associated with regional myelin estimates in the temporal portion of the inferior longitudinal fasci-culus. By contrast, neither the responsiveness of SWA to sleep saturation or deprivation, its overnight dynamics, nor the frontal/occipital SWA ratio were associated with brain structural indices. Our results indicate that frontal SWA generation tracks inter-individual differences in continued structural brain re-organization during early adulthood. This stage of life is not only characterized by ongoing region-specific changes in myelin content, but also by a sharp decrease and a shift towards frontal predominance in SWA generation.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 120045 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Neuroimage |
Volume | 272 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 May 2023 |
Keywords
- Sleep slow-wave activity
- Sleep homeostasis
- Myelin markers
- semi-quantitative MRI
- EEG
- AGE
- DYNAMICS
- PERFORMANCE
- HOMEOSTASIS
- DENSITY
- DIFFUSION
- VOLUMES
- MODELS
- STATE