Corticostriatal connectivity mediates the reciprocal relationship between parent-reported sleep duration and impulsivity in early adolescents

Associations between sleep habits and different impulsivity facets in adolescence

BACKGROUND

Sleep patterns change during adolescence due to physiological maturation and psychosocial factors, leading to progressively higher eveningness, sleep deprivation and social jetlag (SJL). These sleep changes are associated with impulsivity, a common behavioral trait in adolescence which can make those with developmental disabilities more vulnerable to behavioral, cognitive and clinical difficulties. However, it is unclear which aspects of sleep and what types of impulsivity are involved.

AIMS

To investigate the relationships between sleep/circadian variables and self-reported impulsivity.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Three sleep/circadian variables (time in bed on weekdays, eveningness and SJL) and five dissociable facets of self-reported impulsivity (UPPS-P scale) were answered by 389 healthy 9-17-year-olds (225 girls).

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

A significant (but small) association between eveningness and a multivariate composed of the five facets of impulsivity (5 % of variance explained) was found and negative urgency was the main driver (4 %) of this relationship.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Typically developing adolescents with high eveningness traits display slight difficulty controlling their behavior when in a state of negative affect. This finding deserves an in-depth investigation in youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities, who are more prone to presenting sleep/circadian changes, externalizing problems like impulsiveness and internalizing one such as mood alterations.

Changes in Rest-Activity Rhythms in Adolescents as They Age: Associations With Brain and Behavioral Changes in the ABCD Study

OBJECTIVE

Adolescents with disrupted rest-activity rhythms (RARs), including shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing, and low physical activity levels, are at greater risk for mental health and behavioral problems. It remains unclear whether the same associations can be observed for within-subject changes in RARs.

METHOD

This longitudinal investigation on RARs used Fitbit data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at the 2-year follow-up (FL2) (ages 10-13 years) and 4-year follow-up (FL4) (ages 13-16 years). Good-quality Fitbit data were available for 963 youths at both time points. Changes in RARs from FL2 to FL4, their environmental and demographic contributors, and brain and behavioral correlates were examined.

RESULTS

From FL2 to FL4, adolescents showed decreases in sleep duration and physical activity as well as delayed sleep timing (Cohen d = 0.44-0.75). Contributions of environmental and demographic factors to RAR changes were greatest for sleep timing (explained 10% variance) and least for sleep duration (explained 1% variance). Delays in sleep timing had stronger correlations with behavioral problems including impulsivity and poor academic performance than reductions in sleep duration or physical activity. Additionally, the various brain measures differed in their sensitivity to RAR changes. Reductions in sleep duration were associated with decreased functional connectivity between subcortical regions and sensorimotor and cingulo-opercular networks and with enhanced functional connectivity between sensorimotor, visual, and auditory networks. Delays in sleep timing were mainly associated with gray matter changes in subcortical regions.

CONCLUSION

The current findings corroborate the importance of sleep and physical activity in brain neurodevelopment and behavioral problems in adolescents. RARs might serve as biomarkers for monitoring behavioral problems and be potential therapeutic targets for mental disorders in adolescents.

Association between sleep problems and impulsivity mediated through regional homogeneity abnormalities in male methamphetamine abstainers

Sleep problems and impulsivity frequently occur in methamphetamine (MA) abstainers and are linked to aberrant brain function. However, the interplay between these factors remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep, impulsivity, and regional homogeneity (ReHo) through mediation analysis in MA abstainers. 46 MA abstainers and 44 healthy controls were included. Impulsivity and sleep problems were evaluated using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Scale, respectively. ReHo, indicative of local brain spontaneous neural activity, was assessed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results unveiled correlations between different dimensions of impulsivity and ReHo values in specific brain regions. Motor impulsivity correlated with ReHo values in the left postcentral gyrus and left precentral gyrus, while non-planning impulsivity was only associated with ReHo values in the left precentral gyrus. Additionally, the need for sleep medications correlated with ReHo values in the left precentral gyrus and bilateral postcentral gyrus. Also, the need for sleep medications was positively correlated with cognitive impulsivity and motor impulsivity. Mediation analysis indicated that reduced ReHo values in the left precentral gyrus mediated the association between impulsivity and the need for sleep medications. These findings imply that addressing sleep problems, especially the need for sleep medications, might augment spontaneous neural activity in specific brain regions linked to impulsivity among MA abstainers. This underscores the importance of integrating sleep interventions into comprehensive treatment strategies for MA abstainers.

Puberty interacts with sleep and brain network organization to predict mental health

Introduction

Along with pubertal development, the transition to adolescence brings about increased risk for sleep disturbances and mental health problems. Functional connectivity of overlapping large-scale brain networks, such as increased connectivity between the default mode and dorsal attention networks, has been reported to relate to both sleep and mental health problems. Clarifying whether pubertal development interacts with sleep disturbances and functional brain networks to predict mental health may provide information to improve the timing and design of interventions targeting sleep disturbances in adolescents.

Methods

To examine how pubertal status and tempo relate to sleep disturbances and shape the relationship between sleep disturbances and mental health problems, we harnessed a large sample of children aged 10-14 years from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N ~ 3,000-10,000). We used graph theoretical tools to probe how pubertal development concurrently interacts with sleep disturbances and brain network organization to predict mental health problems.

Results

We found that advanced pubertal status, but not pubertal tempo, predicted sleep disturbances; however, both pubertal status and tempo interact with sleep disturbances to predict mental health problems and engage in three-way interactions with sleep and brain network organization to predict mental health problems.

Discussion

Overall, this work suggests that less advanced pubertal status and slower tempo are risk factors for the strongest links between sleep disturbances, brain organization, and mental health problems. Further, our findings speak to the importance of accounting for interactions in the constellation of factors that surround complex behavioral and clinical syndromes, here internalizing and externalizing disorders, and provide new context to consider for targeted interventions.

Interoceptive brain network mechanisms of mindfulness-based training in healthy adolescents

Introduction

This study evaluated changes in the white matter of the brain and psychological health variables, resulting from a neuroscience-based mindfulness intervention, the Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action (TARA), in a population of healthy adolescents.

Methods

A total of 100 healthy adolescents (57 female, age ranges 14-18 years) were randomized into the 12-week TARA intervention or a waitlist-control group. All participants were imaged with diffusion MRI to quantify white matter connectivity between brain regions. Imaging occurred at baseline/randomization and after 12 weeks of baseline (pre- and post-intervention in the TARA group). We hypothesized that structural connectivity in the striatum and interoceptive networks would increase following the TARA intervention, and that, this increased connectivity would relate to psychological health metrics from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The TARA intervention and all assessments, except for the MRIs, were fully remotely delivered using secure telehealth platforms and online electronic data capture systems.

Results

The TARA intervention showed high consistency, tolerability, safety, recruitment, fidelity, adherence, and retention. After 12 weeks, the TARA group, but not controls, also demonstrated significantly improved sleep quality (p = 0.02), and changes in the right putamen node strength were related to this improved sleep quality (r = -0.42, p = 0.006). Similarly, the TARA group, but not controls, had significantly increased right insula node strength related to improved emotional well-being (r = -0.31, p = 0.04). Finally, we used the network-based statistics to identify a white matter interoception network that strengthened following TARA (p = 0.009).

Discussion

These results suggest that the TARA mindfulness-based intervention in healthy adolescents is feasible and safe, and it may act to increase structural connectivity strength in interoceptive brain regions. Furthermore, these white matter changes are associated with improved adolescent sleep quality and emotional well-being. Our results suggest that TARA could be a promising fully remotely delivered intervention for improving psychological well-being in adolescents. As our findings suggest that TARA affects brain regions in healthy adolescents, which are also known to be altered during depression in adolescents, future studies will examine the effects of TARA on depressed adolescents.

Clinical trial registration

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04254796.

Changes in rest-activity rhythms in adolescents as they age: associations with brain changes and behavior in the ABCD study

Background

Adolescents with disrupted rest-activity rhythms (RAR) including shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing and low physical activity levels have higher risk for mental and behavioral problems. However, it remains unclear whether the same associations can be observed for within-subject changes in RAR.

Methods

Our longitudinal investigation on RAR used Fitbit data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at the 2-year (FL2: aged 10-13 years) and 4-year follow-up (FL4: aged 13-16 years). 963 youths had good-quality Fitbit data at both time points. In this study we examined changes in RAR from FL2 to FL4, their environmental and demographic contributors as well as brain and behavioral correlates.

Results

From FL2 to FL4, adolescents showed decreases in sleep duration and physical activity as well as delayed sleep timing (Cohen's d .44-.75). The contributions of environmental and demographic factors to RAR changes were greatest to sleep timing (explained 10% variance) and least to sleep duration (explained 1% variance). Delays in sleep timing had stronger correlations with behavioral problems including greater impulsivity and poor academic performance than reductions in sleep duration or physical activity. Additionally, the various brain measures differed in their sensitivity to RAR changes. Reductions in sleep duration were associated with decreased brain functional connectivity between subcortical regions and sensorimotor and cingulo-opercular networks and with enhanced functional connectivity between sensorimotor, visual and auditory networks. Delays in sleep timing were mainly associated with grey matter changes in subcortical regions.

Conclusions

The current findings corroborate the role of sleep and physical activity in adolescent's brain neurodevelopment and behavior problems. RAR might serve as biomarkers for monitoring behavioral problems in adolescents and to serve as potential therapeutic targets for mental disorders.

The effect of sleep-corrected social jetlag on crystalized intelligence, school performance, and functional connectome in early adolescence

Approximately half of adolescents encounter a mismatch between their sleep patterns on school days and free days, also referred to as "social jetlag". This condition has been linked to various adverse outcomes, such as poor sleep, cognitive deficits, and mental disorders. However, prior research was unsuccessful in accounting for other variables that are correlated with social jetlag, including sleep duration and quality. To address this limitation, we applied a propensity score matching method on a sample of 8853 11-12-year-olds from the two-year follow-up (FL2) data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We identified 3366 pairs of participants with high sleep-corrected social jetlag (SJLsc, over 1 hour) and low SJLsc (<= 1 hour) at FL2, as well as 1277 pairs at three-year follow-up (FL3), after matching based on 11 covariates including socioeconomic status, demographics, and sleep duration and quality. Our results showed that high SJLsc, as measured by the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, was linked to reduced crystallized intelligence, lower school performance - grades, and decreased functional connectivity between cortical networks and subcortical regions, specifically between cingulo-opercular network and right hippocampus (cerc-hprh). Further mediation and longitudinal mediation analyses revealed that cerc-hprh connection mediated the associations between SJLsc and crystallized intelligence at FL2, and between SJLsc and grades at both FL2 and FL3. We validated these findings by replicating these results using objective SJLsc measurements obtained via Fitbit watches. Overall, our study highlights the negative association between social jetlag and crystallized intelligence during early adolescence.