Summary
Sleep evolves dramatically over the course of infancy and childhood, in tandem with developmental progress. The examination of brain oscillations as captured on the sleep EEG provides insight into the trajectory of cortical maturation and the acquisition of developmental milestones.
Slow waves in particular may underlie the homeostatic regulation of synaptic plasticity, providing a mechanistic link between sleep and the consolidation of memory. This is well illustrated by studies in children with epilepsy, particularly epileptic syndromes with a strong activation of epileptic discharges during slow wave sleep - in which skills are lost while slow wave sleep is disrupted by epileptiform activity and recover on its restoration.
The possibility to modulate sleep slow oscillations by well tolerated non-invasive means has increased the clinical importance of these phenomena. New data show that the enhancement of slow waves with closed loop auditory stimulation can improve memory performance in children.
In this symposium, we illustrate the intimate relationship between sleep and cognition, using data from cohorts of healthy children as well as children with epilepsy and ADHD. We argue that understanding brain activity in pediatric sleep and its perturbation will be key to future sleep-based cognitive interventions.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this CME activity, participants should be able to:
Target Audience
Pediatricians with an interest in sleep in neurodevelopmental conditions including epilepsy and ADHD; Clinical psychologists with an interest in the cognitive outcomes of sleep perturbation
Chair
Samantha Chan (United Kingdom)
Riding the (brain)waves - trajectories of slow wave, cortical and behavioral maturation
Samantha Chan (United Kingdom)
Epilepsy, sleep and cognition: Slow waves and spike waves - the good and the evil
Bigna Bolsterli (Switzerland)
Boosting slow waves for memory? Auditory closed-loop stimulation in children with ADHD
Hong Viet Ngo (Netherlands)
Sleep and brain maturation: From descriptive studies to a neuromodulation approach
Reto Huber (Switzerland)