Evidence for cortical structural plasticity in humans after a day of waking and sleep deprivation

NeuroImage
Torbjørn ElvsåshagenLars T Westlye

Abstract

Sleep is an evolutionarily conserved process required for human health and functioning. Insufficient sleep causes impairments across cognitive domains, and sleep deprivation can have rapid antidepressive effects in mood disorders. However, the neurobiological effects of waking and sleep are not well understood. Recently, animal studies indicated that waking and sleep are associated with substantial cortical structural plasticity. Here, we hypothesized that structural plasticity can be observed after a day of waking and sleep deprivation in the human cerebral cortex. To test this hypothesis, 61 healthy adult males underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at three time points: in the morning after a regular night's sleep, the evening of the same day, and the next morning, either after total sleep deprivation (N=41) or a night of sleep (N=20). We found significantly increased right prefrontal cortical thickness from morning to evening across all participants. In addition, pairwise comparisons in the deprived group between the two morning scans showed significant thinning of mainly bilateral medial parietal cortices after 23h of sleep deprivation, including the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex. However, there w...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 1, 2019·The European Journal of Neuroscience·Anna Wirz-Justice, Francesco Benedetti
Dec 19, 2020·Biochemical Pharmacology·Whitney Stee, Philippe Peigneux
Aug 23, 2021·The Journal of Headache and Pain·Faisal Mohammad AminMessoud Ashina

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