Disrupted brain network topology in chronic insomnia disorder: A resting-state fMRI study

This study investigated the topological characteristics of brain functional networks in chronic insomnia disorder (CID) patients. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory analysis method were applied to investigate the brain functional connectome patterns among 45 CID patients and 32 healthy controls. The brain functional connectome was constructed by thresholding partial correlation matrices of 90 brain regions from an automated anatomical labeling atlas. The topologic properties of brain functional connectomes at both global and nodal levels were tested. The CID patients had decreased number of module (p = .014) and hierarchy (p = .038), and increased assortativity (p = .035). Furthermore, some brain regions located in the default mode network, dorsal attention network, and sensory-motor network in these patients showed altered nodal centralities. Within these areas, the node betweenness of right central paracentral lobule had positive correlation with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score (R = 0.319, p = .039). The results imply that functional disruptions of CID patients may be related to disruptions in global and regional topological organization of the brain functional connectome, and provide new and important insights to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of CID.
Highlights • Chronic insomnia disorder (CID) patients had disrupted global topological properties. • Many brain regions of CID patients showed altered nodal centralities involving three different resting networks. • Functional disruption of right central paracentral lobule may be a target for therapeutic intervention in pediatric CID. • The disruption of topological organization might be explain the mechanism/reason of functional disruptions of CID.