Chronotype differences in cortical thickness: grey matter reflects when you go to bed

Association of chronotype with language and episodic memory processing in children: implications for brain structure

Introduction

Chronotype refers to individual preference in circadian cycles and is associated with psychiatric problems. It is mainly classified into early (those who prefer to be active in the morning and sleep and wake up early) and late (those who prefer to be active in the evening and sleep and wake up late) chronotypes. Although previous research has demonstrated associations between chronotype and cognitive function and brain structure in adults, little is known regarding these associations in children. Here, we aimed to investigate the relationship between chronotype and cognitive function in children. Moreover, based on the significant association between chronotype and specific cognitive functions, we extracted regions-of-interest (ROI) and examined the association between chronotype and ROI volumes.

Methods

Data from 4,493 children (mean age of 143.06 months) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study were obtained, wherein chronotype (mid-sleep time on free days corrected for sleep debt on school days) was assessed by the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire. Subsequently, the associations between chronotype, cognitive function, and ROI volumes were evaluated using linear mixed-effects models.

Results

Behaviorally, chronotype was negatively associated with vocabulary knowledge, reading skills, and episodic memory performance. Based on these associations, the ROI analysis focused on language-related and episodic memory-related areas revealed a negative association between chronotype and left precentral gyrus and right posterior cingulate cortex volumes. Furthermore, the precentral gyrus volume was positively associated with vocabulary knowledge and reading skills, while the posterior cingulate cortex volume was positively associated with episodic memory performance.

Discussion

These results suggest that children with late chronotype have lower language comprehension and episodic memory and smaller brain volumes in the left precentral gyrus and right posterior cingulate cortex associated with these cognitive functions.

Changes in rest-activity rhythms in adolescents as they age: associations with brain changes and behavior in the ABCD study

Background

Adolescents with disrupted rest-activity rhythms (RAR) including shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing and low physical activity levels have higher risk for mental and behavioral problems. However, it remains unclear whether the same associations can be observed for within-subject changes in RAR.

Methods

Our longitudinal investigation on RAR used Fitbit data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at the 2-year (FL2: aged 10-13 years) and 4-year follow-up (FL4: aged 13-16 years). 963 youths had good-quality Fitbit data at both time points. In this study we examined changes in RAR from FL2 to FL4, their environmental and demographic contributors as well as brain and behavioral correlates.

Results

From FL2 to FL4, adolescents showed decreases in sleep duration and physical activity as well as delayed sleep timing (Cohen's d .44-.75). The contributions of environmental and demographic factors to RAR changes were greatest to sleep timing (explained 10% variance) and least to sleep duration (explained 1% variance). Delays in sleep timing had stronger correlations with behavioral problems including greater impulsivity and poor academic performance than reductions in sleep duration or physical activity. Additionally, the various brain measures differed in their sensitivity to RAR changes. Reductions in sleep duration were associated with decreased brain functional connectivity between subcortical regions and sensorimotor and cingulo-opercular networks and with enhanced functional connectivity between sensorimotor, visual and auditory networks. Delays in sleep timing were mainly associated with grey matter changes in subcortical regions.

Conclusions

The current findings corroborate the role of sleep and physical activity in adolescent's brain neurodevelopment and behavior problems. RAR might serve as biomarkers for monitoring behavioral problems in adolescents and to serve as potential therapeutic targets for mental disorders.

The subjective amplitude of the diurnal rhythm matters - Chronobiological insights for neuroimaging studies

Multiple aspects of human psychophysiology, including mood and cognition, are subjected to diurnal rhythms. While the previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have focused solely on the morningness-eveningness (ME) preference dichotomy, i.e. the circadian phase, the second key dimension of the diurnal rhythms, i.e. the strength of these preferences (amplitude; AM), has been completely overlooked. Uncovering the neural correlates of AM is especially important considering its link with negative emotionality. Structural T1-weighted neuroimaging data from 79 early (EC) and 74 late (LC) chronotypes were analysed to compare grey matter (GM) volume and cortical thickness. The study aimed to elucidate whether the subjective AM and its interaction with ME was a significant predictor of individual brain structure. Both GM volume and cortical thickness of the left primary visual cortex was negatively correlated with AM scores across the entire sample. Furthermore, EC and LC differed in their association between AM scores and the GM volume in the right middle temporal gyrus, with the positive and negative correlations reported respectively in the two groups. The current study underlines the importance of the visual system in circadian rhythmicity and provides possible neural correlates for AM-related differences in negative affect processing. Furthermore, the presence of the opposite correlations between brain anatomy and AM in the two groups suggests that the behavioural and neuronal chronotype differences might become more pronounced in individuals with extreme diurnal differences in mood and cognition, highlighting the necessity to additionally account for AM in neuroimaging studies.

Sleep disorders causally affect the brain cortical structure: A Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND

s: Previous studies have reported that patients with sleep disorders have altered brain cortical structures. However, the causality has not been determined. We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to reveal the causal effect of sleep disorders on brain cortical structure.

METHODS

We included as exposures 11 phenotypes of sleep disorders including subjective and objective sleep duration, insomnia symptom and poor sleep efficiency, daytime sleepiness (narcolepsy)/napping, morning/evening preference, and four sleep breathing related traits from nine European-descent genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Further, outcome variables were provided by ENIGMA Consortium GWAS for full brain and 34 region-specific cortical thickness (TH) and surface area (SA) of grey matter. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) was used as the primary estimate whereas alternative MR methods were implemented as sensitivity analysis approaches to ensure results robustness.

RESULTS

At the global level, both self-reported or accelerometer-measured shorter sleep duration decreases the thickness of full brain both derived from self-reported data (βIVW = 0.03 mm, standard error (SE) = 0.02, P = 0.038; βIVW = 0.02 mm, SE = 0.01, P = 0.010). At the functional level, there were 66 associations of suggestive evidence of causality. Notably, one robust evidence after multiple testing correction (1518 tests) suggests the without global weighted SA of superior parietal lobule was influenced significantly by sleep efficiency (βIVW = -285.28 mm2, SE = 68.59, P = 3.2 × 10-5).

CONCLUSIONS

We found significant evidence that shorter sleep duration, as estimated by self-reported interview and accelerometer measurements, was causally associated with atrophy in the entire human brain.

Development of morning-eveningness in adolescence: implications for brain development and psychopathology

BACKGROUND

Morning-evening preference is defined as an individual's preference for a morning- or evening-oriented rhythm. Across adolescence, a preference for eveningness becomes more predominant. Although eveningness is cross-sectionally associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, few studies have examined developmental changes in eveningness and its potential biological substrates. Here, we investigated the longitudinal relationships among the trajectory of eveningness preference, internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and white matter development, across adolescence.

METHODS

Two-hundred and nine adolescents (49% male) were assessed longitudinally at four separate time points between 12 and 19 years of age. Morning-evening preference and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed at each time point. Diffusion-weighted images were acquired on a subset of participants at the final two time points to estimate changes in global mean fractional anisotropy (FA). Linear mixed models were performed to estimate the change in eveningness over time. A series of linear regression models assessed the influence of change in eveningness on psychopathology and white matter development at age 19.

RESULTS

Across the sample, a preference for eveningness became more predominant by 19 years of age. Greater individual-level change towards eveningness significantly predicted greater severity in externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms at 19 years of age. In contrast, change in psychopathology from 12 to 19 years of age was not associated with morning-eveningness at age 19. A change towards eveningness predicted an attenuated increase in FA between 17 and 19 years of age.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that developmental changes in morning-evening preference may predict both neurodevelopmental and psychological outcomes in adolescents.

Regional shape alteration of left thalamus associated with late chronotype in young adults

Chronotype reflects individual differences in circadian rhythms and influences individual psychology and behavior. Previous studies found altered subcortical structures are closely related to individual chronotypes. However, these studies have been conducted mainly using voxel-based morphometry and traditional volume measurement methods with certain limitations. This study aimed to investigate subcortical aberrant volume and shape patterns in late chronotypes (LC) young adults compared to early chronotypes (EC) young adults. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning and chronotype assessment were performed once for all participants, including 49 LC young adults and 49 matched EC young adults. The morningness and eveningness preferences were assessed using the Chronotype Questionnaire. A vertex-wise shape analysis was conducted to analyze structural MRI data. There were no significant differences in brain tissue volume and subcortical structural volume between groups. LC young adults showed significant regional shape atrophy in the left ventral posterior thalamus compared to EC individuals. A significant correlation was found between the regional shape atrophy of left ventral posterior thalamus and the score of Chronotype Questionnaire in LC young adults. Regional shape alteration of left thalamus was closely related to the chronotype, and LC may be a potential risk factor for sleep-related behavioral and mental problems in young adults. However, the predominantly female sample and the failure to investigate the effect of chronotype on the subcortical structure-function network are limitations of this study. Further prospective studies are needed to investigate the temporal characteristics of thalamic shape changes and consequent behavioral and psychiatric problems in adults with LC.

Naturalistic Sleep Patterns are Linked to Global Structural Brain Aging in Adolescence

PURPOSE

We examined whether interindividual differences in naturalistic sleep patterns correlate with any deviations from typical brain aging.

METHODS

Our sample consisted of 251 participants without current psychiatric diagnoses (9-25 years; mean [standard deviation] = 17.4 ± 4.52 yr; 58% female) drawn from the Neuroimaging and Pediatric Sleep Databank. Participants completed a T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging scan and 5-7 days of wrist actigraphy to assess naturalistic sleep patterns (duration, timing, continuity, and regularity). We estimated brain age from extracted structural magnetic resonance imaging indices and calculated brain age gap (estimated brain age-chronological age). Robust regressions tested cross-sectional associations between brain age gap and sleep patterns. Exploratory models investigated moderating effects of age and biological gender and, in a subset of the sample, links between sleep, brain age gap, and depression severity (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Depression).

RESULTS

Later sleep timing (midsleep) was associated with more advanced brain aging (larger brain age gap), β = 0.1575, puncorr = .0042, pfdr = .0167. Exploratory models suggested that this effect may be driven by males, although the interaction of gender and brain age gap did not survive multiple comparison correction (β = 0.2459, puncorr = .0336, pfdr = .1061). Sleep duration, continuity, and regularity were not significantly associated with brain age gap. Age did not moderate any brain age gap-sleep relationships. In this psychiatrically healthy sample, depression severity was also not associated with brain age gap or sleep.

DISCUSSION

Later midsleep may be one behavioral cause or correlate of more advanced brain aging, particularly among males. Future studies should examine whether advanced brain aging and individual differences in sleep precede the onset of suboptimal cognitive-emotional outcomes in adolescents.

Chronotype, Longitudinal Volumetric Brain Variations Throughout Adolescence, and Depressive Symptom Development

OBJECTIVE

Adolescence is a critical period for circadian rhythm, with a strong shift toward eveningness around age 14. Also, eveningness in adolescence has been found to predict later onset of depressive symptoms. However, no previous study has investigated structural variations associated with chronotype in early adolescence and how this adds to the development of depressive symptoms.

METHOD

Assessment of 128 community-based adolescents (51% girls) at age 14 and 19 years was performed. Using whole-brain voxel-based morphometry, baseline (at age 14) regional gray matter volumes (GMVs), follow-up (at age 19) regional GMVs, and longitudinal changes (between 14 and 19) associated with Morningness/Eveningness Scale in Children score and sleep habits at baseline were measured. The association of GMV with depressive symptoms at 19 years was studied, and the role of potential clinical and genetic factors as mediators and moderators was assessed.

RESULTS

Higher eveningness was associated with larger GMV in the right medial prefrontal cortex at ages 14 and 19 in the whole sample. GMV in this region related to depressive symptoms at age 19 in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val/Val, but not in Met COMT, carriers. Larger GMV also was observed in the right fusiform gyrus at age 14, which was explained by later wake-up time during weekends.

CONCLUSION

In adolescence, eveningness and its related sleep habits correlated with distinct developmental patterns. Eveningness was specifically associated with GMV changes in the medial prefrontal cortex; this could serve as a brain vulnerability factor for later self-reported depressive symptoms in COMT Val/Val carriers.

Primary hypothyroidism and chronotypes in adult women

Objective

Abnormal thyroid function may disrupt sleep architecture. We aimed to determine the frequency of various chronotypes in women with hypothyroidism. We performed a single-center retrospective study at an ambulatory clinic from January 2013-December 2015. Participants were women with hypothyroidism. Chronotype was determined from the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire. The χ² test was used to compare differences in clinical characteristics and sleep patterns in early and intermediate/late chronotypes. The t test was used to compare differences between means.

Results

We evaluated 99 patients (mean [SD], 56 [7] years): calculated chronotype revealed: 56% early, 38% intermediate and 6% late. Analysis with the χ² test showed significant differences between early and intermediate/late calculated chronotypes for sleep latency (P = 0.01), light exposure (P = 0.009), and no alcohol intake (P = 0.001). t test showed the following differences in mean (SD) between chronotypes: sleep duration, 7.30 (1.39) hours (early chronotype) and 7.04 (2.06) hours (intermediate/late); body mass index (BMI), 29.4 (7.3) (early) and 31.1 (6.8) (intermediate/late); and TSH level, 2.89 (3.69) mIU/L (early) and 1.69 (1.41) mIU/L (intermediate/late). Early chronotypes were frequent in women with hypothyroidism. Light exposure and BMI may influence chronotypes in patients with hypothyroidism; findings are consistent with healthier behaviors in patients who tend toward morningness.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-022-05934-3.

Evening preference correlates with regional brain volumes in the anterior occipital lobe

Chronotype or diurnal preference is a questionnaire-based measure influenced both by circadian period and by the sleep homeostat. In order to further characterize the biological determinants of these measures, we used a hypothesis-free approach to investigate the association between the score of the morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) and the Munich chronotype questionnaire (MCTQ), as continuous variables, and volumetric measures of brain regions acquired by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Data were collected from the Baependi Heart Study cohort, based in a rural town in South-Eastern Brazil. MEQ and anatomical 1.5-T MRI scan data were available from 410 individuals, and MCTQ scores were available from a subset of 198 of them. The average MEQ (62.2 ± 10.6) and MCTQ (average MSFsc 201 ± 85 min) scores were suggestive of a previously reported strong general tendency toward morningness in this community. Setting the significance threshold at P > .002 to account for multiple comparisons, we observed a significant association between lower MEQ score (eveningness) and greater volume of the left anterior occipital sulcus (β = -0.163, p = .001) of the occipital lobe. No significant associations were observed for MCTQ. This may reflect the smaller dataset for MCTQ, and/or the fact that MEQ, which asks questions about preferred timings, is more trait-like than the MCTQ, which asks questions about actual timings. The association between MEQ and a brain region dedicated to visual information processing is suggestive of the increasingly recognized fluidity in the interaction between visual and nonvisual photoreception and the circadian system, and the possibility that chronotype includes an element of masking.

Irregular sleep habits, regional grey matter volumes, and psychological functioning in adolescents

Changing sleep rhythms in adolescents often lead to sleep deficits and a delay in sleep timing between weekdays and weekends. The adolescent brain, and in particular the rapidly developing structures involved in emotional control, are vulnerable to external and internal factors. In our previous study in adolescents at age 14, we observed a strong relationship between weekend sleep schedules and regional medial prefrontal cortex grey matter volumes. Here, we aimed to assess whether this relationship remained in this group of adolescents of the general population at the age of 16 (n = 101; mean age 16.8 years; 55% girls). We further examined grey matter volumes in the hippocampi and the amygdalae, calculated with voxel-based morphometry. In addition, we investigated the relationships between sleep habits, assessed with self-reports, and regional grey matter volumes, and psychological functioning, assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and tests on working memory and impulsivity. Later weekend wake-up times were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdalae, and greater weekend delays in wake-up time were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the right hippocampus and amygdala. The medial prefrontal cortex region mediated the correlation between weekend wake up time and externalising symptoms. Paying attention to regular sleep habits during adolescence could act as a protective factor against the emergence of psychopathology via enabling favourable brain development.

Identifying Diurnal Variability of Brain Connectivity Patterns Using Graph Theory

Significant differences exist in human brain functions affected by time of day and by people’s diurnal preferences (chronotypes) that are rarely considered in brain studies. In the current study, using network neuroscience and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data, we examined the effect of both time of day and the individual’s chronotype on whole-brain network organization. In this regard, 62 participants (39 women; mean age: 23.97 ± 3.26 years; half morning- versus half evening-type) were scanned about 1 and 10 h after wake-up time for morning and evening sessions, respectively. We found evidence for a time-of-day effect on connectivity profiles but not for the effect of chronotype. Compared with the morning session, we found relatively higher small-worldness (an index that represents more efficient network organization) in the evening session, which suggests the dominance of sleep inertia over the circadian and homeostatic processes in the first hours after waking. Furthermore, local graph measures were changed, predominantly across the left hemisphere, in areas such as the precentral gyrus, putamen, inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), inferior temporal gyrus, as well as the bilateral cerebellum. These findings show the variability of the functional neural network architecture during the day and improve our understanding of the role of time of day in resting-state functional networks.

Brain structural correlates of insomnia severity in 1053 individuals with major depressive disorder: results from the ENIGMA MDD Working Group

It has been difficult to find robust brain structural correlates of the overall severity of major depressive disorder (MDD). We hypothesized that specific symptoms may better reveal correlates and investigated this for the severity of insomnia, both a key symptom and a modifiable major risk factor of MDD. Cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volumes were assessed from T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 1053 MDD patients (age range 13-79 years) from 15 cohorts within the ENIGMA MDD Working Group. Insomnia severity was measured by summing the insomnia items of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Symptom specificity was evaluated with correlates of overall depression severity. Disease specificity was evaluated in two independent samples comprising 2108 healthy controls, and in 260 clinical controls with bipolar disorder. Results showed that MDD patients with more severe insomnia had a smaller cortical surface area, mostly driven by the right insula, left inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis, left frontal pole, right superior parietal cortex, right medial orbitofrontal cortex, and right supramarginal gyrus. Associations were specific for insomnia severity, and were not found for overall depression severity. Associations were also specific to MDD; healthy controls and clinical controls showed differential insomnia severity association profiles. The findings indicate that MDD patients with more severe insomnia show smaller surfaces in several frontoparietal cortical areas. While explained variance remains small, symptom-specific associations could bring us closer to clues on underlying biological phenomena of MDD.

Diurnal Preference and Grey Matter Volume in a Large Population of Older Adults: Data from the UK Biobank

Eveningness (a diurnal preference for evening time) is associated with a number of negative health outcomes and risk and prevalence for psychiatric disorder. Our understanding of the anatomical substrates of diurnal preference, however, is limited. The current study used Voxel-Based Morphometry to compare grey matter volume in a large sample (N = 3730) of healthy adults determined by questionnaire to be either definite morning-type or definite evening-type. Eveningness was associated with increased grey matter volume in precuneus, brain regions implicated in risk and reward processing (bilateral nucleus accumbens, caudate, putamen and thalamus) and orbitofrontal cortex. These results indicate an anatomical-basis for diurnal preference which may underlie reported differences in behaviour and brain function observed in these individuals.