Study on gray matter volume changes of long-term night shift physicians of the emergency department based on MRI data / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the abnormal region of gray matter and distribution in long-term night shift physicians of the emergency department,and explore the brain structural changes closely related to long-term chronic sleep loss.Methods The study was carried out among two groups of medical staff,with the chronic sleep deprived(CSD)group(n=15)performing a fixed night work and the regular sleep controls (RSC)group (n=15)working regularly during the day at our hospital.Both groups were age-and gender-matched.The data of two groups were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM)based on SPM8 to generate gray maps.Results Compared to the RSC group without night shifts,increased gray matter volume in the CSD group was observed in the middle temporal gyrus,inferior frontal fyrus,insula,thalamus,posterior cingulate,medial frontal gyrus,inferior parietal lobule and postcentral gyrus (P<0.05).Conclusion These findings suggest that long-term,chronic sleep loss is associated with the change of the gray matter volume in the network,and may have a neuroanatomical basis.The brain structural changes are related with the domains of emotion and language,this contributes to further explore on the neural mechanism of the effects of the long-term night shift on brain function.