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

午睡有益于幼儿的学习和记忆。然而，孩子们在学龄前过渡到午睡。是否应该鼓励幼儿园午睡，或者取消午睡以提供更多的早期学习时间，目前还不清楚。这项研究的总体目标是研究儿童早期睡眠和大脑发育对记忆的作用，特别是当儿童从午睡中过渡出来时。这个假设的核心假设是，在这个过渡性发育时期，与记忆相关的大脑区域的成熟导致更多的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整合的需要，这最终成为从午睡过渡的基础。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，为健康的儿童保健，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。虽然我们以前已经记录了幼儿睡眠依赖性巩固导致的记忆表现的变化，但支持这一过程的神经机制还有待研究。这种差距是有问题的，因为记忆和大脑皮层网络都在这一时期经历了显着的发展变化。我们的目标是确定大脑发育和睡眠生理学在儿童发育期间记忆变化的机制途径。为了实现这一点，我们将获得大脑结构，大脑功能，睡眠生理学和记忆的测量结果。我们假设，大脑和睡眠生理发育中与年龄相关的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将使睡眠中的记忆转移更有效，并将与慢波睡眠的变化相关。我们将使用模型来验证海马结构的变化将先于海马功能的变化这一假设;这些组合的变化将导致睡眠模式的变化;改善睡眠将改善记忆力。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。

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.