May 07, 2025
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Signs of sleep disorders are found in regions of the brain that regulate emotions and executive functions.
- Signs of sleep deprivation are indicated by alterations within the thalamus.
Within the brain, indications of sleep disorders have commonality in regions dealing with executive function and reflex, as well as memory and emotional regulation, according to results of a meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry.
“This study demonstrates that brain regions engaged in emotion regulation and connected with the system mediating social cognition are uniformly dysfunctional in persons with chronic sleep disorders of all etiologies,” Peter T. Fox, MD, neurology professor and director of the Research Imaging Institute at UT Health San Antonio, told Healio.
“By contrast, sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy persons manifests as alterations in the thalamus, likely reflecting a state of altered vigilance,” Fox continued. “That is, sleep disorders appear to be emotional disorders; sleep deprivation is not.”
Prior research has determined that sleep disorders have different origins but may share certain symptoms. As the connections between short- and long-term sleep deficits are uncertain, Fox and colleagues sought to investigate both shared and specific neural correlates that exist for a range of sleep-related concerns.
Their meta-analysis combed databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus and BrainMap up to January 2024 to identify whole-brain neuroimaging articles that included voxel-based group differences between patients with different sleep disorders and healthy control participants, or between individuals who were partially or totally sleep deprived and those who were well-rested.
From more than 34,000 records identified by an initial screening, 231 articles containing data on 140 unique experiments featuring 3,380 unique participants were included. For sleep disorders, 95 experiments with 2,302 unique participants as well as 45 experiments
with 1,079 unique participants for sleep deprivation were considered.
Transdiagnostic regional brain alterations were identified across sleep disorders and among articles reporting sleep deprivation, while the researchers additionally analyzed associated behavioral functions and connectivity patterns by BrainMap and the enhanced Nathan Kline Institute–Rockland Sample datasets.
The analysis across sleep disorders identified affected areas such as the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex — which is associated with reward, reasoning and taste — along with the amygdala and hippocampus, commonly associated with negative emotion processing, memory and smell.
According to results,45 experiments found the right thalamus, associated with temperature regulation and pain receptors, was consistently affected by sleep deprivation.
Further, Fox and colleagues’ subanalyses on directional alterations found the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex exhibited decreased activation, connectivity, and/or volume, while the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus clusters all displayed increased activation, connectivity, and/or volume.
“Poor sleep and sleep disturbances are risk factors for various mental health conditions and are frequently reported by patients with a wide range of neuropsychiatric
disorders, making them a global problem,” they wrote.
For more information:
Peter T. Fox, MD, can be reached at fox@uthscsa.edu.