from http://www.sleepreviewmag.com

Researchers Link Childhood Sleep Apnea to Brain Damage

Past studies have shown that adults with sleep apnea have abnormalities of parts of their brain, but Johns Hopkins’ researchers appear to be the first to investigate and conclude similar changes in children. The breakthrough study shows neural changes in the brains of children with serious, untreated sleep apnea, leading researchers to conclude that children with the disorder appear to suffer damage in two brain structures tied to learning ability.

The study compared 19 children with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to 12 children without the disorder. Using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers identified changes to the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex. Next—using IQ tests and other standardized performance tests that measure verbal performance, memory, and executive function—the researchers were able to link the changes in the two brain structures to deficits in neuropsychological performance.

“This should be a wake up call to both parents and doctors that undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea might hurt children’s brains,” said lead author Ann Halbower, MD, a lung specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “This is truly concerning because we saw changes that suggest brain injury in areas of the brain that house critical cognitive functions, such as attention, learning, and working memory.”

Researchers cannot say with certainty that sleep apnea caused the injury, but they found a strong association between changes in the neurons of the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex and IQ and other cognitive functions in which children with OSA scored poorly.

Children with OSA had lower mean IQ test scores (85) than the children without OSA (101). Children with OSA also performed worse on standardized tests measuring executive functions, such as verbal working memory (8 versus 15) and word fluency (9.7 versus 12).