This study aimed to elucidate the alterations in the prefrontal cortex’s functional connectivity and network topology in narcolepsy patients using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Twelve narcolepsy-diagnosed patients from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region’s People’s Hospital Sleep Medicine Department and 11 matched healthy controls underwent resting fNIRS scans. Functional connectivity and graph theory analyses were employed to assess the prefrontal cortex network’s properties and their correlation with clinical features. Results indicated increased functional connectivity in these adolescent and young adult patients with narcolepsy, with significant variations in metrics like average degree centrality and node efficiency, particularly in the left middle frontal gyrus. These alterations showed correlations with clinical symptoms, including depression and sleep efficiency. However, the significance of these findings was reduced post False Discovery Rate adjustment, suggesting a larger sample size is needed for validation. In conclusion, the study offers initial observations that alterations in the prefrontal cortex’s functional connectivity may potentially act as a neurobiological indicator of narcolepsy, warranting further investigation with a larger cohort to substantiate these findings and understand the underlying mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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使用功能近红外光谱评估患有发作性睡病的青少年和年轻人的静息态大脑功能连接

本研究旨在利用功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）阐明发作性睡病患者前额皮质功能连接和网络拓扑的变化。来自广西壮族自治区人民医院睡眠医学科的 12 名发作性睡病诊断患者和 11 名匹配的健康对照者接受了静息 fNIRS 扫描。采用功能连接和图论分析来评估前额皮质网络的特性及其与临床特征的相关性。结果表明，这些患有嗜睡症的青少年和年轻成年患者的功能连接性增强，平均度中心性和节点效率等指标存在显着变化，特别是在左侧额中回。这些变化显示出与临床症状的相关性，包括抑郁和睡眠效率。然而，这些发现的重要性在错误发现率调整后降低，表明需要更大的样本量进行验证。总之，该研究提供了初步观察结果，即前额叶皮层功能连接的改变可能作为发作性睡病的神经生物学指标，需要对更大的队列进行进一步研究，以证实这些发现并了解潜在机制。