Poor Self-Reported Sleep is Related to Regional Cortical Thinning in Aging but not Memory Decline—Results From the Lifebrain Consortium. (25th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fjell, Anders M; Sørensen, Øystein; Amlien, Inge K; Bartrés-Faz, David; Brandmaier, Andreas M; Buchmann, Nikolaus; Demuth, Ilja; Drevon, Christian A; Düzel, Sandra; Ebmeier, Klaus P; Ghisletta, Paolo; Idland, Ane-Victoria; Kietzmann, Tim C; Kievit, Rogier A; Kühn, Simone; Lindenberger, Ulman; Magnussen, Fredrik; Macià, Didac; Mowinckel, Athanasia M; Nyberg, Lars; Sexton, Claire E; Solé-Padullés, Cristina; Pudas, Sara; Roe, James M; Sederevicius, Donatas; Suri, Sana; Vidal-Piñeiro, Didac; Wagner, Gerd; Watne, Leiv Otto; Westerhausen, René; Zsoldos, Enikő; Walhovd, Kristine B;
• Is Part Of: Cerebral cortex. Volume 31:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1953
• Page End: 1969
• Publication Date: 2020-11-25
• Subjects: aging -- atrophy -- cortex -- sleep; Cerebral cortex -- Periodicals; Brain -- Periodicals; 612.825
• DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa332
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1047-3211

Abstract

Abstract: We examined whether sleep quality and quantity are associated with cortical and memory changes in cognitively healthy participants across the adult lifespan. Associations between self-reported sleep parameters (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and longitudinal cortical change were tested using five samples from the Lifebrain consortium ( n = 2205, 4363 MRIs, 18–92 years). In additional analyses, we tested coherence with cell-specific gene expression maps from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, and relations to changes in memory performance. "PSQI # 1 Subjective sleep quality" and "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" were related to thinning of the right lateral temporal cortex, with lower quality and more disturbances being associated with faster thinning. The association with "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" emerged after 60 years, especially in regions with high expression of genes related to oligodendrocytes and S1 pyramidal neurons. None of the sleep scales were related to a longitudinal change in episodic memory function, suggesting that sleep-related cortical changes were independent of cognitive decline. The relationship to cortical brain change suggests that self-reported sleep parameters are relevant in lifespan studies, but small effect sizes indicate that self-reported sleep is not a good biomarker of general cortical degeneration in healthy older adults.