The Role of Sleep in Children's Intelligence

受睡眠影响最大的人类功能也是智力的关键领域，包括学习，记忆，注意力和执行功能。虽然睡眠与儿童的智力有关，但其潜在机制仍不清楚。我们的长期目标是了解睡眠在儿童和青少年认知功能中的作用。拟议研究计划的目标是研究非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠振荡-慢波睡眠和睡眠纺锤波-在整个发育过程中的智力作用。 我们进行这项研究的基本原理是，一旦我们了解了非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠振荡和智力如何相互作用，我们将能够描绘智力的神经基础，并绘制睡眠中的个体差异和发育变化如何与认知发展相关。 我们计划通过一系列旨在调查NREM睡眠振荡和智力之间相互作用的研究来实现我们的目标。我们将在儿童和青少年中使用横断面，交叉顺序和创新的实验设计，并采用神经心理学和行为技术。拟议的工作将在一个有利于顺利完成的研究环境中进行，并使用先进的客观方法来测量儿童自然环境中的睡眠，从而克服该领域以前的方法学挑战。 我们以前的工作证明了所提出的工作的可行性。此外，我们特别准备进行拟议的研究，因为我们的研究计划具有获得明确结果所需的专业知识和经验的范围和广度。 拟议的工作是创新的，因为它将是第一个计划：1）同时检查SWS纵向轨迹与认知表现之间的关联; 2）检查SWS与儿童和青少年智力之间的关联; 3）利用实验设计，允许在这种情况下建立因果关系。 我们的工作将产生重要的积极影响，因为我们的研究结果有望显著推进认知发展，发育神经科学和儿科睡眠领域，同时也为我们的HQP提供独特的多学科培训机会。

The human functions that are the most affected by sleep are also the key domains of intelligence including learning, memory, attention and executive functions. While it is evident that sleep is associated with intelligence in children, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Our long-term goal is to understand the role of sleep in the cognitive functioning of children and adolescents. The objective of the proposed research program, which is a subsection of our long-term goal, is to examine the role of Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep oscillations - Slow Wave Sleep and sleep spindles-  in intelligence across development.  Our rationale for this study is that once we understand how Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep oscillations and intelligence interact, we will be able to delineate the neural basis for intelligence and map how individual variations and developmental changes in sleep are related to those in cognitive development. We plan to accomplish our objective by pursuing a series of studies aimed at investigating the interplay between NREM sleep oscillations and intelligence. We will use cross-sectional, cross-sequential and innovative experimental designs in children and adolescents, and employ neuropsychological and behavioral techniques. The proposed work will be conducted in a research environment that is conducive to successful completion and uses advanced objective methodology to measure sleep in the child’s natural environment, thus overcoming previous methodological challenges in the field.  Our previous work demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed work. Furthermore, we are particularly well prepared to undertake the proposed research, because our research program has the scope and the breadth of the expertise and experience needed to obtain definitive outcomes. The proposed work is innovative because it will be the first program to: 1) simultaneously examine the associations between longitudinal trajectories in SWS and cognitive performance; 2) examine the associations between SWS and intelligence in children and adolescents; and 3) utilize an experimental design that will allow causal associations to be established in this context.  Our work will have important positive impacts, because our results are expected to significantly advance the fields of cognitive development, developmental neuroscience and pediatric sleep while also offering our HQP unique multidisciplinary training opportunities.