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The gray matter volume of bilateral inferior temporal gyrus in mediating the association between psychological stress and sleep quality among Chinese college students

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Abstract

The role of brain regions in the relationship between psychological stress and sleep quality is unclear. This study investigates the neuroanatomical basis of the association between psychological stress and sleep quality. Data were collected using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Psychosomatic Tension Relaxation Inventory, and voxel-based morphometry among 318 healthy students. The results showed that psychological stress was negatively correlated with sleep quality. According to the mediation analysis results, the correlation between psychological stress and sleep quality was partially mediated by the region of the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that there is a strong link between sleep quality and psychological stress, highlighting the gray matter volume of the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus related to emotional processing, which plays an essential role in improving sleep quality.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 18A029) and the Education Planning foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. XJK20AXL01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

    Li Zhang, Gege Cao, Youling Bai, Dan Li & Huazhan Yin

  2. Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

    Li Zhang, Gege Cao, Youling Bai, Dan Li & Huazhan Yin

  3. Changsha Institute of Educational Sciences, Changsha, 410081, China

    Zhenghua Liu

  4. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Computing and Language Information Processing, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China

    Jinping Liu

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  1. Li Zhang
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Contributions

LZ and GC conducted the studies, DL and HY provided substantive ideas, LZ, GC and YB collected and analyzed the data, LZ, GC, DL, YB, ZL, JL, and HY prepared and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dan Li or Huazhan Yin.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Zhang, L., Cao, G., Liu, Z. et al. The gray matter volume of bilateral inferior temporal gyrus in mediating the association between psychological stress and sleep quality among Chinese college students. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 557–564 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00524-6

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