Late chronotype is linked to greater cortical thickness in the left fusiform and entorhinal gyri

Abstract

Late chronotype is linked to greater cortical thickness in the left fusiform and entorhinal gyri Humans can be classified as early, intermediate and late chronotypes based on the preferred sleep and wakefulness patterns. The anatomical basis of these distinctions remains largely unexplored. Using magnetic resonance imaging data from 113 healthy young adults (71 females), we aimed to replicate cortical thickness and grey matter volume chronotype differences reported earlier in the literature using a greater sample size, as well as to explore the volumetric white matter variation linked to contrasting circadian phenotypes. Instead of comparing the chronotypes, we correlated the individual chronotype scores with their morphometric brain measures. The results revealed one cluster in the left fusiform and entorhinal gyri showing increased cortical thickness with increasing preference for eveningness, potentially providing an anatomical substrate for chronotype-sensitive affective processing. No significant results were found for grey and white matter volume. We failed to replicate cortical thickness and volumetric grey matter distinctions in the brain regions reported in the literature. Furthermore, we found no association between white matter volume and chronotype. Thus, while this study confirms that circadian preference is associated with specific structural substrates, it adds to the growing concerns that reliable and replicable neuroimaging research requires datasets much larger than those commonly used.

SBM vs VBM for highlighting similarities and differences between chronotype and Parkinson’s MRI scans: a preliminary analysis

“…The PG group included patients data and scans downloaded from The Parkinson Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) [21], while the EG and LG data has been acquired from [https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds003826/versions/3.0.1 dataset]. Regarding the LG and EG the data was obtained as follows [22]:…”

Tracing Diurnal Differences in Brain Anatomy with Voxel-Based Morphometry – Associations with Sleep Characteristics

“…In all of the analyses, there were no interactions between chronotype and TOD (p > 0.05), and in the case of voxel- and vertex-level comparisons the brain areas under significant influence of one factor were different from those affected by the other one. The current dataset was a part of a larger investigation on the effects of chronotype on brain morphometric parameters, the results of which are described elsewhere (Zareba et al, 2021).…”

“…As the current dataset was a part of a larger investigation into the effects of chronotype and subjective amplitude of diurnal variations in mood and cognition on brain morphometric measures (Zareba et al 2021; Zareba et al, 2023), we additionally tested in the full sample whether there was any interaction between these circadian characteristics (Oginska 2011; Oginska et al 2017) and TOD volumetric brain differences. No such effects were found (p > 0.05) and thus these measures were not included in the models.…”

“…On the night before the morning session participants slept in the rooms located in the same building as the MRI laboratory. As the current dataset was a part of a larger investigation into the effects of chronotype on brain morphometric measures (Zareba et al, 2021), we additionally tested in the full sample whether there was any interaction between the circadian preference (Oginska, 2011;Oginska et al, 2017) and TOD volumetric brain differences. No such effect was found (p > 0.05) and thus chronotype was not included in the models.…”

Neuroimaging of chronotype, sleep quality and daytime sleepiness: Structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance brain imaging data from 136 young adults

“…Structural brain data in .nii format are stored in anat subdirectories along with respective .json files containing information about scanning sequence parameters. The data of 113 out of 136 participants included in the current dataset was used in a manuscript correlating the indices of brain structure with continuous chronotype score [1] . These participants are marked in the participants.tsv file.…”