Abstract
Sleep spindles are related to sleep‐dependent memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. However, they undergo drastic maturational changes during adolescence. Here we used a longitudinal approach (across 7 years) to explore whether developmental changes in sleep spindle density can explain individual differences in sleep‐dependent memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. Ambulatory polysomnography was recorded during four nights in 34 healthy subjects (24 female) with two nights (baseline and experimental) at initial recording (age range 8–11 years) and two nights at follow‐up recording (age range 14–18 years). For declarative learning, participants encoded word pairs with a subsequent recall before and after sleep. General cognitive abilities were measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. Higher slow (11–13 Hz) than fast (13–15 Hz) spindle density at frontal, central, and parietal sites during initial recordings, followed by a shift to higher fast than slow spindle density at central and parietal sites during follow‐up recordings, suggest that mature spindle topography develops throughout adolescence. Fast spindle density increases from baseline to experimental night were positively related to sleep‐dependent memory consolidation. In addition, we found that the development of fast spindles predicted the improvement in memory consolidation across the two longitudinal measurements, a finding that underlines a crucial role for mature fast spindles for sleep‐dependent memory consolidation. Furthermore, slow spindle changes across adolescence were related to general cognitive abilities, a relationship that could indicate the maturation of frontal networks relevant for efficient cognitive processing. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NXJzm8HbIw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuMQY1OIJ0s
Highlights
Decreases in total sleep time, sleep efficiency and slow-wave sleep across the lifespan are well known (Ohayon, Carskadon, Guilleminault, & Vitiello, 2004)
To follow-up data acquisition (FUP) (t(33)frontal = −7.40, p < 0.001, d = −0.98; t(33)central = −10.13, p < 0.001, d = −1.31; t(33)parietal = −10.05, p < 0.001, d = −.1.40). These results show that while slow spindle density dominated during childhood, fast spindle density matured throughout adolescence
We found that an enhancement in overnight memory change between initial data acquisition (INI) and FUP was related to decreased central slow spindle density (rs(34) = −0.33, p = 0.056) and especially to increased central fast spindle density between INI and FUP during the experimental nights (rs(34) = 0.49, p = 0.003; Figure 5)
Summary
Decreases in total sleep time, sleep efficiency and slow-wave sleep across the lifespan are well known (Ohayon, Carskadon, Guilleminault, & Vitiello, 2004). Using a longitudinal study design, we investigated the developmental changes of sleep spindles across adolescence and their relation to memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. In one of our studies, we were able to show that slow spindle activity was not related to sleep-dependent memory consolidation, but was linked to higher initial memory performance in 8–11-year-old children (Hoedlmoser et al, 2014). Lower spindle frequency was related to better reasoning and working memory in school-aged children, a result that is in contrast to studies of adult populations (Chatburn et al, 2013; Gruber et al, 2013) In both adolescents (15–22 years) and children (4–8 years), fast spindle amplitude was positively correlated with fluid intelligence (Bodizs, Gombos, Ujma, & Kovacs, 2014; Ujma, Sandor, Szakadat, Gombos, & Bodizs, 2016). Our longitudinal study aimed to answer whether developmental changes in sleep spindles are involved in the development of individual differences in memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. As sleep spindles are known to be related to cognitive abilities, developmental spindle changes were expected to be associated with general cognitive abilities
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