Slow-wave sleep and executive network function in older adults

 描述(申请人提供)：认知障碍影响高达36%的65岁以上的人口，并决定一个人是否能够在成年后独立生活和工作。65岁以后，痴呆症的发病率呈指数增长。确定认知障碍的可改变因素以及廉价、安全的缓解认知障碍的方法是研究和临床实践的关键优先事项。中国的赤字 认知能力与成年后睡眠的变化是平行的。现有研究表明，睡眠不足会对年轻人的认知和大脑功能造成严重后果。这就提出了一个问题，即老年人普遍存在的睡眠缺陷是否会导致老年人普遍存在的认知缺陷。认知过程随着年龄的增长而下降，依赖于前额叶皮质(PFC)，即执行功能，对个体差异、睡眠效率和睡眠深度最敏感。矛盾的是，在老年人中，习惯性总睡眠时间与执行功能很少相关。事实上，很长的总睡眠时间通常与 认知能力较差，总体健康状况较差。因此，睡眠限制不会像年轻人那样对老年人的认知产生负面影响。这就引出了这样一个问题：更深、更稳固的睡眠是否对老年人更好。可能有一个适度的“理想”睡眠范围，可以优化睡眠深度，从而优化老年人的认知和大脑功能。这项研究的目的是通过限制卧床时间，在行为上增加老年人睡眠深度的生理指标(非快速眼动慢波活动)，以检验其对执行功能和相应功能脑网络连接的积极影响。这项研究的重点是确定睡眠深度对执行功能和相应网络的影响是否最大。这项研究将精确定位睡眠促进认知健康的系统水平的途径。总的来说，它将有助于我们未来发展睡眠干预措施，以改善认知和我们对可改变的健康因素的理解，这些因素可以促进认知健康和大脑健康。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cognitive impairments affect up to 36% of the population over age 65 and determine whether an individual may live independently and work competently in older adulthood. After 65, the incidence of dementia increases exponentially. Identifying modifiable contributors to cognitive impairment and inexpensive, safe ways to mitigate cognitive deficits are critical priorities for research and clinical practice. Deficits in cognition are paralleled by changes in sleep in older adulthood. Existing research demonstrates severe consequences of sleep loss on cognition and brain function in young adults. This raises the question of whether sleep deficits common in aging contribute to cognitive deficits prevalent in older adulthood. Cognitive processes that decline with age and depend on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), i.e. executive functions, are most sensitive to individual differences sleep efficiency and sleep depth. Paradoxically, habitual total sleep time is rarely associated with executive function in older adults. In fact, very long total sleep time is commonly associated with poorer cognition and general health. Consequently, sleep restriction does not negatively affect cognition in older adults to the same extent as young adults. This raises the question of whether deeper, more consolidated sleep is better for older adults. There may be a moderate "ideal" sleep range that optimizes sleep depth to optimize cognition and brain function in older adults. The aim of the proposed study is to behaviorally increase physiological measures of sleep depth (non-REM slow-wave activity) in older adults through time-in-bed restriction, to examine its positive effects on executive function and corresponding functional brain network connectivity. This study's focus is to determine whether effects of sleep depth are greatest for executive functions and corresponding networks. This study will pinpoint systems-level pathways through which sleep promotes cognitive fitness. Broadly, it will contribute to our future development of sleep interventions to improve cognition and our understanding of modifiable health factors that promote cognitive fitness and brain health.