Altered functional connectivity of anterior cingulate cortex in chronic insomnia: A resting-state fMRI study

The aim of our present study was to explore the connectivity pattern change between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the voxels from the whole brain in chronic insomnia (CI). With region of interest (ROI)-based functional connectivity, a two-sample t-test was performed on individual FC cor -relation maps from two groups based on the resting-state fMRI data acquired from 57 CI patients and 46 healthy controls (GRF correction, voxel-level P < 0.001 and cluster-level P < 0.001). A correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between the clinical features and the abnormal FC. Compared to the healthy controls, the CI patients show increased connectivity between the ACC and the right middle frontal gyrus, with decreased connectivity between the ACC and the bilateral precuneus gyrus. Correlation analysis indicated that the decreased connectivity showed positive correlations with Self -Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scores. Our study shows the alterations of CI patients in the level of func-tional integration and may indicate the dysfunction of communication within brain regions of the default mode network (DMN). These changes and their correlation with negative emotions may provide addi-tional evidence to understand the possible neural mechanisms of CI.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The aim of this study was to explore changes in the connectivity pattern between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and voxels from the whole brain in chronic insomnia (CI). Using region of interest (ROI)-based functional connectivity, a two-sample t-test was performed on individual FC correlation maps from 57 CI patients and 46 healthy controls. The results showed increased connectivity between the ACC and the right middle frontal gyrus, with decreased connectivity between the ACC and the bilateral precuneus gyrus in CI patients compared to healthy controls. The decreased connectivity was positively correlated with Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scores.