ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2023
REM sleep is associated with the volume of the cholinergic basal forebrain in aMCI individuals.
Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between REM sleep EEG slowing and brain cholinergic denervation in aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- A gradual and sustainable approach to diagnosing sleep and circadian disturbances in dementia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Night-to-night rapid eye movement sleep variability: A relevant marker of early amyloid-β deposition.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Observational
- Cyclic alternating pattern in sleep electroencephalography as a novel predictor of dementia: A prospective study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- A multimodal sleep foundation model for disease prediction.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Altered rhythmic and arrhythmic electroencephalographic activity during non-rapid eye movement sleep in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Subcortical correlates of sleep in aging and Alzheimer's disease: anBrain communications · 2026Article
- Cholinergic basal forebrain neurons regulate vascular dynamics and cerebrospinal fluid flux.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Functional and structural brain remodeling in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy following cervical decompression surgery.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- A Multimodal Sleep Foundation Model Developed with 500K Hours of Sleep Recordings for Disease Predictions.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Altered fornix integrity is associated with sleep apnea-related hypoxemia in mild cognitive impairment.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- TMS-derived short afferent inhibition discriminates cognitive status in older adults without dementia.Aging brain · 2024Article
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14 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundRapid-eye movement (REM) sleep highly depends on the activity of cholinergic basal forebrain (BF) neurons and is reduced in Alzheimer's disease. Here, we investigated the associations between the volume of BF nuclei and REM sleep characteristics, and the impact of cognitive status on these links, in late middle-aged and older participants.
methodsThirty-one cognitively healthy controls (66.8 ± 7.2 years old, 13 women) and 31 participants with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) (68.3 ± 8.8 years old, 7 women) were included in this cross-sectional study. All participants underwent polysomnography, a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and Magnetic Resonance Imaging examination. REM sleep characteristics (i.e., percentage, latency and efficiency) were derived from polysomnographic recordings. T1-weighted images were preprocessed using CAT12 and the DARTEL algorithm, and we extracted the gray matter volume of BF regions of interest using a probabilistic atlas implemented in the JuBrain Anatomy Toolbox. Multiple linear regressions were performed between the volume of BF nuclei and REM sleep characteristics controlling for age, sex and total intracranial volume, in the whole cohort and in subgroups stratified by cognitive status.
resultsIn the whole sample, lower REM sleep percentage was significantly associated to lower nucleus basalis of Meynert (Ch4) volume (β = 0.32, p = 0.009). When stratifying the cohort according to cognitive status, lower REM sleep percentage was significantly associated to both lower Ch4 (β = 0.48, p = 0.012) and total BF volumes (β = 0.44, p = 0.014) in aMCI individuals, but not in cognitively unimpaired participants. No significant associations were observed between the volume of the BF and wake after sleep onset or non-REM sleep variables. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that REM sleep disturbances may be an early manifestation of the degeneration of the BF cholinergic system before the onset of dementia, especially in participants with mild memory deficits.
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