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Results indicate that obstructive sleep apnea patients showed focal reductions of grey-matter volume at baseline in the left hippocampus, posterior parietal cortex and right superior frontal gyrus. Significant grey-matter volume increases were observed after three months of continuous positive airway pressure therapy in hippocampal and frontal structures. No further improvement in gray-matter volume was observed after one year of CPAP therapy.

"OSA patients showed cognitive impairment associated with neurostructural damage affecting specific cerebral regions," said principal investigator Vincenza Castronovo, PhD, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist and sleep laboratory coordinator at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele and San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy. "In addition, we show that most of the neuropsychological deficits are reversed after three months of treatment with CPAP and, for the first time, that such cognitive improvements parallel an increase of grey-matter volume in specific hippocampal and frontal brain regions. The increase of grey-matter volume in these regions is significantly correlated with the improvement at neuropsychological tests of executive functioning and short-term memory."

 

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