Work

Neural Correlates of Working Memory Performance in Primary Insomnia

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine neural correlates of working memory performance in patients with primary insomnia (PIs) compared with well-matched good sleepers (GSs). DESIGN: Twenty-five PIs and 25 GSs underwent functional MRI while performing an N-back working memory task. SETTING: VA hospital sleep laboratory and University-based functional imaging center. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS: 25 PIs, 25 GSs. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Although PIs did not differ from GSs in cognitive performance, PIs showed the expected differences from GSs in both self-reported and objective sleep measures. PIs, relative to GSs, showed reduced activation of task-related working memory regions. This manifested both as an overall reduction in activation of task-related regions and specifically as reduced modulation of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with increasing task difficulty. Similarly, PIs showed reduced modulation (i.e., reduced deactivation) of default mode regions with increasing task difficulty, relative to GSs. However, PIs showed intact performance. CONCLUSIONS: These data establish a profile of abnormal neural function in primary insomnia, reflected both in reduced engagement of task-appropriate brain regions and an inability to modulate task-irrelevant (i.e., default mode) brain areas during working memory performance. These data have implications for better understanding the neuropathophysiology of the well established, yet little understood, discrepancy between ubiquitous subjective cognitive complaints in primary insomnia and the rarely found objective deficits during testing.

Source: SLEEP

DOI: 10.5665/sleep.2952

Authors: Sean P. A. Drummond, Matthew Walker, Erin Almklov, Manuel Campos, Dane E. Anderson, Laura D. Straus

Institutions: San Diego State University, University of California San Diego, VA San Diego Healthcare System, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Sleep and related disorders

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, University of California, San Diego, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, Actelion Pharmaceuticals