Attention in children with obstructive sleep apnoea: an event-related potentials study
Maria E Barnes1, David Gozal, Dennis L Molfese
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA. Maria.Barnes@mssm.edu
Insights
Children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) show altered brain activity and cognitive deficits. Event-related potentials (ERPs) during an attention task can reliably detect this dysfunction, offering a complementary diagnostic tool.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Sleep Medicine
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in children is linked to neurobehavioral and cognitive issues.
- Objective measures are needed to assess cognitive outcomes in pediatric OSA.
- Current assessment relies on time-consuming caregiver questionnaires.
Purpose of the Study:
- Identify electrophysiological markers of cognitive dysfunction in children with OSA.
- Evaluate the predictive utility of these electrophysiological markers.
Main Methods:
- 28 children (14 OSA, 14 controls) underwent sleep studies and neurocognitive testing.
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during an oddball attention task.
- ERPs were analyzed using component and source analyses, correlated with neurocognitive outcomes.
Main Results:
- Children with OSA demonstrated significantly altered ERP patterns and impaired neurocognitive performance.
- Specific ERP variables accurately predicted neurobehavioral outcomes.
- Electrophysiological measures showed reliable identification of OSA-associated cognitive dysfunction.
Conclusions:
- Event-related potentials during attention tasks can identify OSA-related cognitive dysfunction in children.
- Electrophysiological approaches offer a simple, complementary, and reliable method for assessing cognitive deficits in pediatric OSA.
Background:
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in children has been causally implicated in neurobehavioural and cognitive dysfunction. Consequently, the American Academy of Paediatrics highlighted the need to study pertinent functional cognitive outcomes before and after treatment. However, neurocognitive function has thus far only been assessed by caregiver-completed questionnaires, which can be labour intensive and time consuming, such that the need for complementary and more objective measures has emerged.
Objective:
The study aimed to identify electrophysiological correlates of neurocognitive alterations in children with OSA and investigate utility as a predictive tool.
Patients And Methods:
Twenty-eight children (14 OSA and 14 matched controls) underwent overnight sleep studies and neurocognitive testing, as well as the oddball attention task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. ERPs were analysed using temporal principal components and source analyses that provided dependent variables for the subsequent repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regressions. Time-locked waveforms formed spatial models that localised electrical activity in the brain. ERP differences between groups were then correlated to neurocognitive outcomes.
Results:
OSA children exhibited significantly altered ERP patterns of neural activation and impaired neurocognitive performance. Specific ERP variables exhibited accurate predictive ability regarding performance on neurobehavioural measures.
Conclusion:
Specific ERP events during a single attention task can reliably identify the presence of OSA-associated cognitive dysfunction. Electrophysiological approaches during specific cognitive tasks may serve as simple, complementary, and reliable reporters of cognitive dysfunction associated with OSA in children.
