Widespread aberrant functional connectivity throughout the whole brain in obstructive sleep apnea

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder with high prevalence and is associated with cognitive impairment. Previous neuroimaging studies have reported abnormal brain functional connectivity (FC) in patients with OSA that might contribute to their neurocognitive impairments. However, it is unclear whether patients with OSA have a characteristic pattern of FC changes that can serve as a neuroimaging biomarker for identifying OSA. Methods: A total of 21 patients with OSA and 21 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study and scanned using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas was used to divide the cerebrum into 90 regions, and FC between each pair of regions was calculated. Univariate analyses were then performed to detect abnormal FCs in patients with OSA compared with controls, and multivariate pattern analyses (MVPAs) were applied to classify between patients with OSA and controls. Results: ) below 90% of the total sleep time (%TST < 90%). Conclusion: There existed widespread abnormal FCs in the whole brain in patients with OSA. This aberrant FC pattern has the potential to serve as a neurological biomarker of OSA, highlighting its importance for understanding the complex neural mechanism underlying OSA and its cognitive impairment.