Margaret Abstract (what conference?)

Owned by Beatrix Krause (Unlicensed)
Jun 15, 2022
2 min read

Abstract V10

 

Gray Matter Volume in Healthy People: Sex Differences Related to Anxiety and Sleep Symptoms

 

MARGARET A. AKEY2, Beatrix Krause-Sorio1, Fernando Martinez1, Paul M. Macey1

 

1UCLA School of Nursing, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2UCLA College of Letters and Science

 

 

Anxiety disorders are the most common global mental illness, and it is well known that sleep loss is associated with increased anxiety. Women suffer from anxiety more commonly than men. Both sleep loss and anxiety have deleterious effects on the structure of the brain. Therefore, we aimed to identify sex differences in anxiety, sleep, and gray matter volume (GMV). We investigated sex differences in anxiety (Adult Self-Reported DSM-5 Raw Score), self-reported sleep duration in hours, and GMV using 528 T1-weighted magnetic resonance images from the Human Connectome Project (HCP; 261 women mean age=30, SD=4 and 267 men mean age=29 SD=4). Women demonstrated significantly higher anxiety than men (t=3.53, p<.001). Women had a negative correlation between anxiety and sleep (r=-.18, p=.003), whereas men did not (r=-.07, p=.28). A whole-brain analysis showed higher GMV in women compared to men in bilateral insulas, anterior and midcingulate cortices, and the cerebellum (p<0.05, false discovery rate correction). Men showed higher GMV in wide regions across visual, parietal, and inferior temporal lobes as well as in the brain stem, basal ganglia and thalamus. Overall, we found that women had higher anxiety and GMV in regions commonly associated with anxiety and autonomic regulation. Simultaneously, higher anxiety was associated with less sleep in women but not in men. These findings suggest that more anxious healthy women under 40 experience less sleep and show a brain signature for anxiety, which is not present in men.

 

 

Supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research R56NR017435, National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Institute R01HL135562. Data were provided [in part] by the Human Connectome Project, MGH-USC Consortium (Principal Investigators: Bruce R. Rosen, Arthur W. Toga and Van Wedeen; U01MH093765) funded by the NIH Blueprint Initiative for Neuroscience Research grant; the National Institutes of Health grant P41EB015896; and the Instrumentation Grants S10RR023043, 1S10RR023401, 1S10RR019307.