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。虽然很明显睡眠与儿童的智力有关，但其潜在机制尚不清楚。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。拟议的研究项目是我们长期目标的一部分，目的是研究非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠振荡——慢波睡眠和睡眠纺锤波——在智力发展中的作用。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）睡眠振荡和智力的相互作用，我们将能够描绘出智力的神经基础，并绘制出睡眠中的个体差异和发育变化与认知发展的关系。

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.