AUTHOR=Gudberg Christel , Stevelink Remi , Douaud Gwenaëlle , Wulff Katharina , Lazari Alberto , Fleming Melanie K. , Johansen-Berg Heidi TITLE=Individual differences in slow wave sleep architecture relate to variation in white matter microstructure across adulthood JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience VOLUME=14 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.745014 DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2022.745014 ISSN=1663-4365 ABSTRACT=
Sleep plays a key role in supporting brain function and resilience to brain decline. It is well known that sleep changes substantially with aging and that aging is associated with deterioration of brain structure. In this study, we sought to characterize the relationship between slow wave slope (SWslope)—a key marker of sleep architecture and an indirect proxy of sleep quality—and microstructure of white matter pathways in healthy adults with no sleep complaints. Participants were 12 young (24–27 years) and 12 older (50–79 years) adults. Sleep was assessed with nocturnal electroencephalography (EEG) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). White matter integrity was assessed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) on tensor-based metrics such as Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD). Global PSQI score did not differ between younger (