Summary: A new study reveals that lack of sleep in older adults destroys the brain’s sugar system, which is responsible for removing harmful waste and toxins. Researchers found that poor sleep quality leads to dysfunction in this critical system, potentially increasing the risk of memory decay and cognitive impairment.
Using advanced brain imaging in 72 elderly people, this study highlighted that lack of sleep has a negative effect on connections within brain networks associated with memory performance. These insights underscore the importance of maintaining good sleep hygiene to support brain health and healthy aging.
Important Facts:
Sleep and Brain Health: Degraded sleep quality impairs the brain’s glymps the clearance of harmful proteins, which is important for clearing. Cognitive effects: Dysfunctional glymphetic activity due to lack of sleep correlates with memory decline in older adults. Neural Networks: Sleep quality directly affects brain networks and affects overall health and aging.
Source: University of Hong Kong
Sleep deprivation in older people is linked to the disruption of the brain’s “waste removal system,” according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
Recent research led by Professor Tatia Mc Lee, professor of psychological science and clinical psychology and professor of neuropsychology at HKU, offers valuable insight into how sleep quality affects brain function.
Many studies have linked poor sleep and poor brain function. Professor Lee’s team focused on the glial lymph node system, a fluid transport pathway that plays an important role in removing waste from the brain. System efficiency is an important determinant of brain health, especially in aging populations.
Professor Lee and her team tried to understand the relationship between the Grinfatic brain in a poor sleeper. Glycosylation dysfunction leads to the accumulation of toxic proteins, and this process has recently been linked to several neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy.
“Sleep quality, brain activity and glycamutic function are related. Understanding how sleep quality affects the glymphetic system and human brain networks provides valuable insight into the neurophysiological mechanisms that support age-related memory changes,” Professor Lee said.
The researchers investigated 72 elderly people using functional MRI scans and sleep records. Findings show that poor sleep quality can negatively affect normal brain function by disabling the resilient glymphatic system.
“The results clearly reveal the impact of sleep on human brain networks via the Grinftic system, which affects memory performance in older people,” says Professor Lee.
“Therefore, maintaining efficient grimp function appears to be important to promote healthy aging.”
The findings of this study add important evidence that sleep quality affects cognitive health through underlying neural relationships.
“Memory impairment is a common complaint among older people with poor quality sleep,” Professor Lee noted.
“Our results provide a new perspective on the interactions of sleep, the glymphatic system, and multimodal brain networks.”
The study was recently published in an article entitled “The Effects of Sleep on Glymphetic Function and Multimodal Human Brain Networks in Influencing Memory in Elderly People.”
About this aging and sleep research news
Author: Jaymee Ng
Source: University of Hong Kong
Contact: Jamie NG – University of Hong Kong
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“The effects of sleep on glymphetic function and multimodal human brain networks affecting memory in older adults,” Tatia Mc Lee et al. Molecular Psychiatry
Abstract
The effect of sleep on the grimp function and multimodal human brain networks affecting the memory of older adults.
Understanding how sleep affects the glycosystem and human brain networks is important to elucidate the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin aging-related memory decline.
Multimodal datasets collected through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and polysomography recordings from 72 elderly people were analyzed. A proximity of the grinftic function was obtained from diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-Alps) index.
Structural and functional brain networks were constructed based on MRI data, and the coupling between the two networks (SC-FC coupling) was also calculated. Correlation analyses revealed that DTI-Alps is negatively correlated with sleep quality measures (e.g., the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Apnea Popnare Index).
With regard to human brain networks, DTI-ALPS was associated with strengths of both functional connectivity (FC) and structural connectivity (SC) and regions such as mid-temporal gyrus and parahoipocampanjarus, as well as SC-FC binding in rich club connections.
Furthermore, DTI-ALPS was found to positively mediate the association between sleep quality and rich club SC-FC coupling. Rich Club SC-FC coupling further mediated the association between DTI-ALPS and memory function.
The results suggest that it disrupts poor brain-brain relationships in poor sleep, and underlies the decline in memory.
Our findings add important evidence that sleep quality affects cognitive health through underlying neural relations and interactions between the glymphe system and multimodal brain networks.
