ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1587180
Changes of regional brain activity in frontal areas associated with cognitive impairement in obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome patients: a restingstate fMRI study
Provisionally accepted
- Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
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Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) can lead to cognitive impairment, however, its central neural mechanism is still unclear. Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were collected from 31 severe OSAHS patients and 28 healthy controls (HCs). Both regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) measures were calculated and compared between groups. Moreover, the correlations between abnormal regions and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were evaluated using Pearson correlation analysis. Finally, ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the values of abnormal brain regions for distinguishing OSAHS patients from HCs.Results: OSAHS patients had decreased MoCA scores when compared with HCs. In comparison with HCs, increased ReHo values were found in the left and right rolandic operculum of OSAHS patients. In addition, decreased fALFF values were identified in the right superior frontal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, left angular gyrus while increased fALFF values were identified in the left thalamus, right thalamus and right putamen of OSAHS patients. Positive relationships were found between fALFF values of the right superior frontal gyrus and MoCA scores in the patient group. The results of ROC analysis showed that the combined model of (ReHo and fALFF values of all abnormal brain regions) could effectively distinguish OSAHS from HCs.Conclusion: Severe OSAHS patients showed decreased brain activities, which were associated with the decreased cognition of patients. In addition, abnormal brain regions could help distinguishing OSAHS patients from HCs. These findings provided new insights about the potential pathogenesis of cognitive impairment caused by OSAHS from the perspective of changes in brain activity.
Keywords: Obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, Polysomnography, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, cognitive impairment
Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jing, Guo, Zhang, Gu, Zhang, Ding and Su. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kelei Su, Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
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