Aberrant Awake Spontaneous Brain Activity in Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Review Focused on Resting-State EEG and Resting-State fMRI

As one of the most common sleep-related respiratory disorders, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by excessive snoring, repetitive apnea, arousal, sleep fragmentation, and intermittent nocturnal hypoxemia. Focused on the resting-state brain imaging techniques, we reviewed the OSA-related resting-state electroencephalogram and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies. Compared with the healthy control group, patients with OSA presented increased frontal and central delta/theta powers during resting-state wakefulness, and their slow-wave activity showed a positive correlation with apnea-hypopnea index. For rsfMRI, the prefrontal cortex and insula may be the vital regions for OSA and are strongly related to the severity of the disease. Meanwhile, some large-scale brain networks, such as the default-mode network, salience network, and central executive network, play pivotal roles in the pathology of OSA. We then discussed the contribution of resting-state brain imaging as an evaluation approach for disease interventions. Finally, we briefly introduced the effects of OSA-related physiological and mental diseases and discussed some future research directions from the perspective of resting-state brain imaging.