Objective: Our study explored associations between a variety of sleep-related problems and grey matter alterations in PD.

Background: Sleep disturbance is a common non-motor feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD) affecting negatively the quality of life. Its neuroanatamical profile is unclear. At the present time, researches investigating neural substrates linked to different self-reported symptoms associated with sleep disorders in PD are still lacking.

Method: Optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was applied to the MRI brian images in 26 PD patients with sleep disorders (PD-S), 20 PD patients without sleep disorders (PD-nS), and 38 age-and sex-matched controls (NCs).

Results: Compared with NCs, PD-S patients revealed widespread reduction of grey matter volume (GMV) in bilateral cerebellum, the parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala, cingulate, frontal, precentral, postcentral, temporal, and occipital gyrus. There was a markedly relationship between sleep onset problems and the reduced GMV of the right cerebellum. Significant grey matter changes was associated with nocturnal restlessness, mainly within the DMN areas, occipital lobe, and the cerebellum. Furthermore, nocturia in PD related to certain grey matter atrophy, including the limbic system, the cerebellum, frontal, parietal, and temporal cortex.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that PD patients with sleep onset difficulty, nocturnal restlessness, and nocturia present regional grey matter alterations, specially in the cerebellum, the limbic system, and multiple cortices. Different patterns might be involved in different clinical features of PD-related sleep disorders.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/brain-mri-morphological-changes-in-different-self-reported-sleep-disturbances-in-pd-patients/