AUTHOR=Federico Giovanni , Alfano Vincenzo , Garramone Federica , Mele Giulia , Salvatore Marco , Aiello Marco , Cavaliere Carlo TITLE=Self-Reported Sleep Quality Across Age Modulates Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Limbic and Fronto-Temporo-Parietal Networks: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional fMRI Study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience VOLUME=14 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.806374 DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2022.806374 ISSN=1663-4365 ABSTRACT=

Sleep problems are increasingly present in the general population at any age, and they are frequently concurrent with—or predictive of—memory disturbances, anxiety, and depression. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, 54 healthy participants recruited in Naples (Italy; 23 females; mean age = 37.1 years, range = 20–68) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a neurocognitive assessment concerning both verbal and visuospatial working memory as well as subjective measures of anxiety and depression. Then, 3T fMRI images with structural and resting-state functional sequences were acquired. A whole-brain seed-to-seed functional connectivity (FC) analysis was conducted by contrasting good (PSQI score <5) vs. bad (PSQI score ≥5) sleepers. Results highlighted FC differences in limbic and fronto-temporo-parietal brain areas. Also, bad sleepers showed an anxious/depressive behavioural phenotype and performed worse than good sleepers at visuospatial working-memory tasks. These findings may help to reveal the effects of sleep quality on daily-life cognitive functioning and further elucidate pathophysiological mechanisms of sleep disorders.