So far, I have talked about how sleep apnea and other sleep disorders cause physiological problems such as more weight gain and a weakened immune system. In this post, I will be talking about how they affect the structure of the brain itself.
Sleep apnea is known to affect cognition and mood. Patients suffer from mood instability and show a lot of cognitive deficits, especially impairment to attention and executive function. They are also emotionally reactive.
The cause behind this is still being researched. One possible reason this may happen is that repeated episodes of the airway collapsing and the patient not breathing during the night causes a reduction in the amount of oxygen the tissues of the brain receive. This causes gray matter loss in different areas of the brain.
One such area is the frontal cortex. This structure is responsible for executive function, or the self-regulation skills that allow us to plan things, manage time, and do other things. It is also associated with working memory.
Other areas in which gray matter loss due to sleep apnea occurs include the thalamus, the hippocampus (the structure that controls memory), and the amygdala (the structure that is associated with emotions). Therefore, this may be a reason why cognitive and emotional difficulties are seen in patients with sleep apnea.
OSA also causes tissue loss in the temporal and parietal lobes, which are responsible for attention and visual-spatial processing.
This tissue loss, however, is shown to be irreversible. Studies have been done which show that CPAP Therapy can reverse gray matter loss for OSA patients. CPAP Therapy is one of the treatment options for OSA patients and I will going further into it in my next post.
Source: Olaithe, Michelle, Shenooka Nanthakumar, Peter R. Eastwood, and Romola S. Bucks. “Cognitive and mood dysfunction in adult obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA): Implications for psychological research and practice.” Translational issues in Psychological Science 1.1 (2015): 67-78. 3 Feb. 2017.
Hey Shubhangi! Is there a reason why gray matter loss occurs notably in these areas of the brain?
ReplyDeleteHi Shreya! The effects of sleep apnea on the structure of the brain is actually still being studied. Therefore, we do not know the reason why it occurs in those areas. However, in the studies that have been done, gray matter loss occurring in those specific areas is a trend.
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