Brief ReportReduced Orbitofrontal and Parietal Gray Matter in Chronic Insomnia: A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study
Section snippets
Methods and Materials
Procedures complied with the declaration of Helsinki and were approved by the local medical ethics committee. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Group Differences
Insomnia patients had a smaller volume of GM than control subjects in three areas (Supplement 1 and Figure 1A): first, the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), corresponding to Brodmann area (BA) 47; second, the bilateral anterior precuneus (BA 7) of the parietal cortex, extending to the transition area between the precuneus and primary somatosensory cortex (BA 1); third, the bilateral posterior precuneus (BA 7) in the occipitoparietal cortex. No areas of higher GM volume were found for the
Discussion
The current study is the first to apply voxel-based morphometry to quantitatively assess structural brain differences between carefully selected insomnia patients and matched control subjects. Insomnia subjects showed smaller GM volumes in three areas in the left orbitofrontal and parietal cortices. The functional importance of the left orbitofrontal GM is supported by the strong negative correlation of its volume with insomnia severity, without any correlation with mood ratings.
The
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