title: Reduced anterior internal capsule white matter integrity in primary insomnia.
abstract: Chronic insomnia is one of the most prevalent central nervous system diseases, however, its neurobiology is poorly understood. Up to now, nothing is known about the integrity of white matter tracts in insomnia patients. In this study, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used in a well-characterized sample of primary insomnia (PI) patients and good sleeper controls to fill this void. Voxelwise between-group comparisons of fractional anisotropy (FA) were performed in 24 PI patients (10 males; 14 females; 42.7 ± 14.5 years) and 35 healthy good sleepers (15 males; 20 females; 40.1 ± 9.1 years) with age and sex as covariates. PI patients showed reduced FA values within the right anterior internal capsule and a trend for reduced FA values in the left anterior internal capsule. The results suggest that insomnia is associated with a reduced integrity of white matter tracts in the anterior internal capsule indicating that disturbed fronto-subcortical connectivity may be a cause or consequence of the disorder.
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Spiegelhalder
authors: Wolfram
authors: W
authors: Regen
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Prem
authors: Chiara
authors: C
authors: Baglioni
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Nissen
authors: Bernd
authors: B
authors: Feige
authors: Susanne
authors: S
authors: Schnell
authors: Valerij G
authors: VG
authors: Kiselev
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Hennig
authors: Dieter
authors: D
authors: Riemann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020772:Internal Capsule / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*