Poster No:
753
Submission Type:
Late-Breaking Abstract Submission
Authors:
Samantha Betts1, Isabelle Brocas1
Institutions:
1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
Recent evidence suggests that adolescents need over 9 hours of sleep for optimal cognitive function,¹ yet most American teens sleep less than 7 hours a night.² Sleep duration declines sharply during adolescence due to increased homework, caffeine intake, evening media use, and early school start times, which conflict with the natural sleep phase shift during puberty.3,4 Many teens try to "catch up" on sleep over the weekend, leading to a pattern called "social jetlag," which exacerbates circadian misalignment. This mismatch between internal rhythms and external cues disrupts neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, increasing the risk of conditions such as obesity, substance use, schizophrenia, depression, and ADHD.5,6,7 Sleep deprivation also impairs attention and memory,8 and heightens emotional sensitivity, leading to irritability and mood swings.9 The current study uses EN-back data from 11- to 14-year-olds in the ABCD Study to examine cross-sectional relationships between sleep, brain activity, and cognitive performance.
Methods:
Analyses included data from 3,784 participants at a two-year follow-up (mean age 14.2 years, 2012 males) and 1,942 participants at a four-year follow-up (mean age 16.8 years, 1,034 males). We examined brain activity across 68 cortical regions (Desikan-Killiany atlas) and 23 subcortical regions. Key contrasts included: 1) 2-back vs. 0-back, 2) faces vs. places, 3) emotional vs. neutral faces, 4) negative vs. neutral faces, 5) positive vs. neutral faces, and 6) negative vs. positive faces. Accuracy difference scores were calculated for each contrast. Sleep measures, derived from the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, included social jetlag (SJL), calculated as the difference between mid-sleep on school and free days, and average weekly sleep duration (SD). Linear mixed-effects models assessed the relationship between EN-back performance and brain activity, and the effect of sleep on EN-back performance, separately for males and females and on the combined dataset. Causal mediation analysis estimated the indirect effect of sleep on behavioral contrasts through fMRI activity, adjusted for age, puberty, income-to-needs ratio, non-interest sleep variables, handedness, sex, and scanner ID.
Results:
Sleep had the greatest impact on 2 vs. 0-back activity and accuracy. Sleep duration and social jetlag were also associated with faces > places accuracy and activity at both time points. At two-year follow-up, SJL was linked to emotion > neutral activity in regions involved in language and emotional processing in females and to positive > neutral activation in the pars orbitalis in males. The left hippocampus mediated the negative effect of social jetlag on 2 vs. 0-back scores at two-year follow-up. At four-year follow-up, this effect was mediated by the bilateral superior parietal cortex and left pars orbitalis, while the positive effect of SJL on faces vs. places scores was mediated by the left rostral middle frontal gyrus (RMFG). At four-year follow-up, the left caudal middle frontal gyrus mediated the negative effect of SD on the 2 vs. 0-back, and the left RMFG mediated the negative effect of SD on faces vs. places. The left medial orbitofrontal cortex and right pars orbitalis mediated the negative effect of SJL on 2 vs. 0-back scores in females, but not in males.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that sleep disturbances become more detrimental in later pubertal stages. Additionally, the neural mediators of sleep's effect on working memory (2 vs. 0-back) vary by age and sex. When both aspects of sleep health are considered, SJL has more pronounced effects than sleep duration. The effects of SJL and SD on working memory are mediated by distinct regions, while the left RMFG mediates the effects of both measures on faces vs. places scores. Finally, females appear to be more affected by social jetlag and sleep duration than males at the developmental stages examined.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Emotion and Motivation Other
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making 1
Learning and Memory:
Working Memory
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 2
Keywords:
Development
Emotions
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Memory
Sleep
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
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Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
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Was this research conducted in the United States?
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Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Behavior
Provide references using APA citation style.
1. Short, M. A., Weber, N., Reynolds, C., Coussens, S., & Carskadon, M. A. (2018). Estimating adolescent sleep need using dose-response modeling. Sleep, 41(4), zsy011. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy011
2. Wheaton, A. G., Perry, G. S., Chapman, D. P., & Croft, J. B. (2013). Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Weight-Control Strategies Among US High School Students. Sleep, 36(8), 1139–1145. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.2872
3. Maslowsky, J., & Ozer, E. J. (2014). Developmental Trends in Sleep Duration in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Evidence From a National United States Sample. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(6), 691–697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.10.201
4. Owens, J. A., & Weiss, M. R. (2017). Insufficient sleep in adolescents: Causes and consequences. Minerva Pediatrica, 69(4), 326–336. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3
5. Hasler, B. P., Soehner, A. M., & Clark, D. B. (2014). Circadian rhythms and risk for substance use disorders in adolescence. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 27(6), 460–466.
6. Ashton, A., & Jagannath, A. (2020). Disrupted Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Schizophrenia and Their Interaction With Dopamine Signaling. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00636
7.Caliandro, R., Streng, A. A., van Kerkhof, L. W. M., van der Horst, G. T. J., & Chaves, I. (2021). Social Jetlag and Related Risks for Human Health: A Timely Review. Nutrients, 13(12), 4543. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13124543
8. Tarokh, L., Short, M., Crowley, S. J., Fontanellaz-Castiglione, C. E. G., & Carskadon, M. A. (2019). Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Adolescence. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 5(4), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40675-019-00155-w
9. Palmer, C. A., & Alfano, C. A. (2017). Sleep and emotion regulation: An organizing, integrative review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 31, 6–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2015.12.006
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