AUTHOR=Wang Hui , Ma Xianjun , Xu Xingru , Ning Qian , Qiao Benyu , Yang Bofeng , Sun Na , Xu Dong , Tang Xin 

TITLE=Altered connection properties of the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus in de novo drug-naïve insomnia disorder

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 19 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2025.1568557

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2025.1568557

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=BackgroundInsomnia disorder (ID) is increasingly prevalent, posing significant risks to patients’ physical and mental health. However, its neuropathological mechanisms remain unclear. Despite extensive research on ID using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, a unified framework for describing its brain function alterations remains absent. Moreover, most prior studies have not fully accounted for the potential impact of medication on outcomes regarding enrollment criteria.MethodsWe recruited 22 ID and 22 healthy controls (HC), matched for age and gender. Patients with ID were never prescribed medications for sleep disorders before enrollment. We detected differences in voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) between the two groups and analyzed the correlation between altered DC values and insomnia severity. Additionally, we conducted receiver operating characteristic analysis to evaluate the diagnostic effectiveness of the altered DC values for ID.ResultsIn ID patients, the weighted DC values of the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) were significantly lower than those of HC, with a notable negative correlation between the weighted DC values of the left dorsolateral SFG and PSQI scores. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the weighted DC of the left dorsolateral SFG effectively differentiates between ID and HC, exhibiting high sensitivity and specificity.ConclusionThis study offers new insights into brain dysfunction and the pathophysiology of ID through voxel-based DC measurements. The results indicate that altered DC properties of the left dorsolateral SFG might serve as a diagnostic marker for ID and a potential therapeutic target for brain function modulation.