Inferior temporal cortical connectivities during loss processing contribute to sleep deficits and perceived stress Inferior Temporal Cortical rsFC contribute to Perceived Stress and Sleep Deficits Perceived stress and sleep deficits

Sleep deficits is associated with impaired cognitive and affective processes, including responses to salient stimuli. Monetary win and loss are both salient. We examined how sleep deficits and comorbid negative emotional states are associated with neural markers of win and loss processing. We curated the Human Connectome Project data and employed connectome-based predictive model (CPM) to investigate how functional connectivity (FC) features of win and loss processing associated with sleep deficits, as reflected in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, and subjective emotional states in 981 young adults. Imaging data were processed with published routines and evaluated with a corrected threshold. We examined the inter-relationship amongst win/loss FC, PSQI score, and clinical measures with mediation and path analyses. Poorer sleep quality is associated with higher right inferior temporal gyrus connectivity with amygdala (rITG-rAmyg) and lower connectivity with cerebellum (rITG-CBL) during monetary loss but not win. Both rITG FCs and PSQI score were significantly correlated with perceived stress. Further, mediation and path analyses showed that rITG-rAmyg and rITG-CBL antagonistically modulate PSQI to regulate perceived stress. Poorer sleep quality was associated with higher rITG-rAmyg and lower rITG-CBL during monetary loss. Notably, altered rITG-rAmyg and rITG-CBL antagonistically modulated sleep quality via their opposing influences on perceived stress. Thus, rIGT FCs exhibit functional antagonism such that the rITG-rAmyg connectivity worse sleep quality and perceived stress whereas the rITG-CBL serves to counter that effect.