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. 2024 Jun 19:18:1396829.
doi: 10.3389/fnana.2024.1396829. eCollection 2024.

Morphological characteristics of cerebellum, pons and thalamus in Reccurent isolated sleep paralysis - A pilot study

Eva Miletínová  1   2 , Monika Kliková  1 , Amálie Dostalíková  2 , Jitka Bušková  1   2
Affiliations

Morphological characteristics of cerebellum, pons and thalamus in Reccurent isolated sleep paralysis - A pilot study

Eva Miletínová et al. Front Neuroanat. .

Abstract

Introduction: Recurrent isolated sleep paralysis (RISP) is a rapid eye movement sleep (REM) parasomnia, characterized by the loss of voluntary movements upon sleep onset and/or awakening with preserved consciousness. Evidence suggests microstructural changes of sleep in RISP, although the mechanism of this difference has not been clarified yet. Our research aims to identify potential morphological changes in the brain that can reflect these regulations.

Materials and methods: We recruited 10 participants with RISP (8 women; mean age 24.7 years; SD 2.4) and 10 healthy control subjects (w/o RISP; 3 women; mean age 26.3 years; SD 3.7). They underwent video-polysomnography (vPSG) and sleep macrostructure was analyzed. After that participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. We focused on 2-dimensional measurements of cerebellum, pons and thalamus. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS program. After analysis for normality we performed Mann-Whitney U test to compare our data.

Results: We did not find any statistically significant difference in sleep macrostructure between patients with and w/o RISP. No evidence of other sleep disturbances was found. 2-dimensional MRI measurements revealed statistically significant increase in cerebellar vermis height (p = 0.044) and antero-posterior diameter of midbrain-pons junction (p = 0.018) in RISP compared to w/o RISP.

Discussion: Our results suggest increase in size of cerebellum and midbrain-pons junction in RISP. This enlargement could be a sign of an over-compensatory mechanism to otherwise dysfunctional regulatory pathways. Further research should be done to measure these differences in time and with closer respect to the frequency of RISP episodes.

Keywords: cerebellum; midbrain; pons; recurrent isolated sleep paralysis; sleep; thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schemes of the measurements. (A) Cerebellum and pontine regions. Height of cerebellar vermis (H-V), antero-posterior diameter of vermis cerebelli (APD-V); antero-posterior diameter of midbrain-pons junction (APD-MP); Antero-posterior diameter of mid-pons (APD-P); Antero-posterior diameter of left thalamus (APD-LT); (B) Thalamus. Transversal diameter of left thalamus (TD-LT); Antero-posterior diameter of right thalamus (APD-RT); transversal diameter of right thalamus (TD-RT).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Height of Vermis (H-V) in w/o RISP (pink) compared to RISP patients (gray).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Antero-posterior diameter of mid pons (APD-MP) in w//o RISP (pink) compared to RISP patients (gray).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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