Collaborative Research: Hippocampal Development and Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation in Preschoolers

合作研究：学龄前儿童的海马发育和睡眠依赖性记忆巩固

• 批准号: 1749332
• 负责人: Rebecca Spencer
• 金额: $ 10.98万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-06-01 至 2021-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1749332&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Hippocampal; Development; Sleep

Naps benefit learning and memory in young children. However, children transition out of naps during preschool years. Whether naps should be encouraged in preschools, or eliminated to provide more time for early learning, is not clear. The overarching objective of this proposed research is to examine the role of sleep and brain development on memory during early childhood, specifically as children transition out of naps. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that maturation of memory-related brain regions during this transitional developmental period results in more information being retained in memory without interference. This in turn reduces the need for frequent consolidation, which, ultimately, underlies the transition out of naps. This research will deepen understanding of how sleep benefits learning and memory in healthy children, providing benefit to healthy child care, pre-school education, and children with developmental and mental disorders. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation is thought to reflect transfer of memories from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex. Although we have previously documented changes in memory performance as a result of sleep-dependent consolidation in young children, the neural mechanisms supporting this process have yet to be examined. This gap is problematic as memory and the hippocampal-cortical network both undergo significant developmental change during this period. Our goal is to identify the mechanistic pathway through which brain development and sleep physiology underlie changes in memory during childhood development. To accomplish this, we will obtain measures of brain structure, brain function, sleep physiology, and memory. We hypothesize that age-related changes in the development of the brain and sleep physiology will result in larger and stronger memories. Likewise, we expect increased hippocampal functional connectivity to allow for more efficient memory transfer with sleep, and will be associated with changes in slow wave sleep. We will use models to test the hypothesis that changes in hippocampal structure will precede changes in hippocampal function; these combined changes will lead to changes in sleep patterns; and that improved sleep will improve memory.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

午睡有利于幼儿的学习和记忆。然而，孩子们在学龄前阶段就不再小睡了。学前班是否应该鼓励小睡，或者消除小睡以提供更多的早期学习时间，目前尚不清楚。这项研究的总体目标是研究睡眠和大脑发育对儿童早期记忆的作用，特别是当儿童从小睡过渡到小睡时。该提议的中心假设是，在这个过渡发育时期，与记忆相关的大脑区域的成熟导致更多信息在不受干扰的情况下保留在记忆中。这反过来又减少了频繁巩固的需要，而这最终是摆脱小睡的过渡的基础。这项研究将加深对睡眠如何有益于健康儿童的学习和记忆的理解，为健康的儿童保育、学前教育以及患有发育和精神障碍的儿童提供益处。睡眠依赖性记忆巩固被认为反映了记忆从海马体到大脑皮层的转移。尽管我们之前已经记录了幼儿睡眠依赖巩固导致的记忆表现变化，但支持这一过程的神经机制尚未得到检验。这种差距是有问题的，因为在此期间记忆和海马皮质网络都经历了显着的发育变化。我们的目标是确定大脑发育和睡眠生理学导致儿童发育过程中记忆变化的机制途径。为了实现这一目标，我们将获得大脑结构、大脑功能、睡眠生理和记忆的测量结果。我们假设，与年龄相关的大脑发育和睡眠生理变化将导致更大更强的记忆。同样，我们预计海马功能连接的增加可以使睡眠过程中的记忆传输更有效，并将与慢波睡眠的变化相关。我们将使用模型来检验海马结构的变化将先于海马功能的变化这一假设；这些综合变化将导致睡眠模式的变化；该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。