Latent transdiagnostic dimensions linking sleep and psychopathology map onto distinct connectome-wide networks
- 1Southwest University, Chongqing, China
Abstract
Sleep disturbance is common and clinically consequential across mental disorders. Yet its transdiagnostic role remains difficult to interpret because sleep is often reduced to a global score and psychiatric symptoms to diagnosis-specific outcomes. Here, we leveraged the YaleNeuroConnect cohort to test whether subjective sleep components align with separable dimensions of symptom-related features and connectome-wide organization. We applied canonical correlation analysis to seven Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index components and 55 clinical, affective, cognitive and interpersonal measures in 260 diagnostically diverse subjects, and mapped the resulting dimensions onto resting-state functional connectivity using network-based statistics. We identified two sleep-psychopathology dimensions. The dominant and cross-validated dimension linked widespread subjective sleep disturbance, especially daytime dysfunction, to general symptom burden, including global severity, perceived stress and fatigue. This dimension was expressed in reduced coupling between the default mode network and frontoparietal and cerebellar systems, reduced cerebellar-subcortical coupling, and stronger coupling between the somatomotor network and higher-order systems. A second, more circumscribed dimension linked shorter sleep duration and prolonged sleep latency to lower self-assurance and positive affect, together with heightened affective and perceptual sensitivity. This dimension showed stronger coupling between cerebellar and dorsal attention systems, together with weaker coupling between the default mode network and attention or cerebellar systems. These findings suggest that sleep is not merely a comorbid symptom, but a multidimensional organizing feature of transdiagnostic psychopathology. Distinguishing broad sleep-related distress from sleep-initiation and sensitivity profiles may help refine brain-based stratification and identify sleep dimensions relevant to intervention.
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BibTeX
@misc{kou2026latent,
title = {{Latent transdiagnostic dimensions linking sleep and psychopathology map onto distinct connectome-wide networks}},
author = {Y. Kou and X. Jin and X. Lei and D. Dong and Y. Wang},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.20.26363508},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.20.26363508v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Latent transdiagnostic dimensions linking sleep and psychopathology map onto distinct connectome-wide networks
AU - Y. Kou
AU - X. Jin
AU - X. Lei
AU - D. Dong
AU - Y. Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/20
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.20.26363508
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.20.26363508v1
AB - Sleep disturbance is common and clinically consequential across mental disorders. Yet its transdiagnostic role remains difficult to interpret because sleep is often reduced to a global score and psychiatric symptoms to diagnosis-specific outcomes. Here, we leveraged the YaleNeuroConnect cohort to test whether subjective sleep components align with separable dimensions of symptom-related features and connectome-wide organization. We applied canonical correlation analysis to seven Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index components and 55 clinical, affective, cognitive and interpersonal measures in 260 diagnostically diverse subjects, and mapped the resulting dimensions onto resting-state functional connectivity using network-based statistics. We identified two sleep-psychopathology dimensions. The dominant and cross-validated dimension linked widespread subjective sleep disturbance, especially daytime dysfunction, to general symptom burden, including global severity, perceived stress and fatigue. This dimension was expressed in reduced coupling between the default mode network and frontoparietal and cerebellar systems, reduced cerebellar-subcortical coupling, and stronger coupling between the somatomotor network and higher-order systems. A second, more circumscribed dimension linked shorter sleep duration and prolonged sleep latency to lower self-assurance and positive affect, together with heightened affective and perceptual sensitivity. This dimension showed stronger coupling between cerebellar and dorsal attention systems, together with weaker coupling between the default mode network and attention or cerebellar systems. These findings suggest that sleep is not merely a comorbid symptom, but a multidimensional organizing feature of transdiagnostic psychopathology. Distinguishing broad sleep-related distress from sleep-initiation and sensitivity profiles may help refine brain-based stratification and identify sleep dimensions relevant to intervention.
ER -