Associations Between Maternal Antenatal Corticosteroid Treatment and Psychological Developmental and Neurosensory Disorders in Children

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Autistic traits and sleep in typically developing adolescents

Objective: Diagnosed autism spectrum disorders have been associated with a high prevalence of sleep problems, other psychiatric disorders and social deficits in adolescence. However, little is known about the possible connection between subclinical autistic traits and sleep. This study explored whether adolescents with elevated levels of subclinical autistic traits are at heightened risk for sleep problems. Methods: This study used data from the community cohort born in 1998. The sample consisted of 157 (57% girls) 17-year-old adolescents. Autistic traits were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale were utilized to control for comorbid psychiatric symptoms. Sleep was measured with actigraphy and sleep quality was self-rated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Associations between autistic traits and sleep were examined using logistic regression analysis. Results: Elevated levels of autistic traits were significantly associated with shorter weekday sleep duration. Moreover, autistic traits remained an independent predictor of short sleep duration when comorbid psychiatric symptoms were controlled for (OR 1.14; 95% CI: 1.03-1.26). Conclusions: The results suggest that subclinical autistic traits should be considered as a possible underlying mechanism affecting adolescent sleep. (c) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Prenatal programming of child neurocognitive abilities and maternal mental health : Fetal Programming

Maternal mental health problems during pregnancy, especially mood and anxiety disorders and symptoms, are common. They not only hinder maternal well-being and health during pregnancy but also are associated with physical and mental health adversities in the offspring. We provide here a review of the studies published between 2017 and 2019, which reported on the associations between maternal mental health problems during pregnancy and child neurocognitive outcomes. We identified eight studies, which reported a mixed pattern of findings. While the balance of evidence favors lack of associations, small sample sizes and heterogeneity in study designs, exposures, outcomes, and covariate adjustments between the studies preclude firm conclusions. The reviewed studies encourage further research filling in the knowledge gaps we identified.Peer reviewe

The association between sleep-wake ratio and overnight picture recognition is moderated by BDNF genotype

A wealth of studies supports the role of sleep in memory performance. Experimentally controlled studies indicate that prolonged wake after memory encoding is detrimental for memory outcome whereas sleep protects from wake-time interference and promotes memory consolidation. We examined how the natural distribution of wake and sleep between encoding and retrieval associated with overnight picture recognition accuracy among 161 adolescents following their typical sleep schedule with an in-home polysomnography. The memorized pictures varied in their level of arousal (calm to exciting) and valence (negative to positive). Suspecting genotypic influence on the sensitivity for sleep/wake dynamics, we also assessed if these associations were affected by known gene polymorphisms involved in neural plasticity and sleep homeostasis: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met and Catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met. In the whole sample, overnight recognition accuracy was associated with the levels of arousal and valence of the pictures, but not with sleep percentage (i.e. the percentage of time spent asleep between memory encoding and retrieval). While the allelic status of BDNF or COMT did not have any main effect on recognition accuracy, a significant moderation by BDNF Val66Met was found (p = .004): the subgroup homozygous for valine allele showed positive association between sleep percentage and recognition accuracy. This was underlain by detrimental influence of wake, rather than by any memory benefit of sleep. Our results complement the mounting evidence that the relation between sleep and memory performance is moderated by BDNF Val66Met. Further studies are needed to clarify the specific mechanisms.Peer reviewe

Onko luonto oikeudenmukainen? Synnynnäinen temperamentti ja stressinsietokyky

Temperamentilla tarkoitetaan ihmiselle tyypillistä yksilöllistä käyttäytymis- tai reagoimistyyliä, joka erottaa hänet muista. Temperamentti kertoo, kuinka ihminen tekee sen, mitä hän tekee, ei sitä, mitä ihminen tekee, eikä sitä, miksi hän tekee. Kun kuvailemme ihmistä, puhumme usein temperamenttipiirteistä, koska temperamentti on paitsi yksilöllinen, "erottaa ihmisen muista", niin ulospäin näkyvä ja helposti havainnoitavissa oleva. Emme tiedä, miksi ihminen on huonolla tuulella, mutta voimme helposti havaita, millä tavalla hän sen osoittaa

The association between overnight recognition accuracy and slow oscillation-spindle coupling is moderated by BDNF Val66Met

During sleep, memories are consolidated via oscillatory events that occur in temporal and phasic synchrony. Several studies show that sleep spindles peaking close to the depolarized positive peaks of slow oscillations (SO) associate with better retention of memories. The exact timing of this synchrony presumably depends on the properties of the related neural network that, in turn, is affected by certain genetic variants associated with brain development and function. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met and Catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met are repeatedly reported to implicate the structure and function of prefrontal and hippocampal areas as well as molecular events promoting synaptic plasticity. In this study, we examined with a community-based sample of 153 adolescents (~17 years) whether these variants (1) affected the coupling properties between frontal SOs and spindles and (2) moderated the association between SO-spindle coupling and overnight recognition accuracy. We found SO-upstate-coupled fast (> 13 Hz) sleep spindles to associate with better recognition in the whole sample. Additionally, Val66Met moderated this association such that SO-spindle coupling was predictive of memory outcome only in those homozygous to ValBDNF alleles but not in MetBDNF carriers. Memory outcome was not associated with the SO-coupling properties of slow spindles nor affected by the interaction between Val158Met and coupling measures. Finally, in the whole sample we found that SO-upstate-coupled fast spindles were more strongly associated with the recognition of positive, relative to neutral, pictures. In conclusion, precise coupling of SOs and fast spindles associates with overnight recognition accuracy and this association is moderated by BDNF Val66Met.Peer reviewe

Is moderate depression associated with sleep stage architecture in adolescence? Testing the stage type associations using network and transition probability approaches

Background Depression even at the subclinical level is often accompanied by sleep disturbances, but little is known about the dynamics of the sleep stages in relation to depressive symptoms. We examined whether the amount, associations, and transition probabilities of various sleep stages were associated with depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents. Methods The participants (N = 172, 59% girls, mean age 16.9 years) underwent overnight polysomnography and provided data on depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory II). The association between depression status and total duration of each stage type was analyzed using ANOVA and survival analyses. The associations between the number of different sleep stage types were analyzed using graphical Gaussian models, mixed graphical models, and relative importance networks. A Markov chain algorithm was used to estimate the transition probabilities between each state and these probabilities were further compared between depression status groups. Results The associations between N1 and N3 were significantly stronger in both directions of the association (p-values for interactions 0.012 and 0.006) in those with more depressive symptoms. Similarly, a stronger association was observed from N1 to wake stage in those with more depressive symptoms (p-value for interaction 0.002). In those with more depressive symptoms, it was more likely to transition from N2 to N3 and from REM to N2 compared to others. Conclusions These findings indicate that changes in sleep architecture are not limited to clinical depression and that the transitional dynamics of sleep stages are an important marker of subclinical depression.Peer reviewe

Cognitive ability in young adulthood predicts risk of early-onset dementia in Finnish men

Objective To test if the Finnish Defence Forces Basic Intellectual Ability Test scores at 20.1 years predicted risk of organic dementia or Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods Dementia was defined as inpatient or outpatient diagnosis of organic dementia or AD risk derived from Hospital Discharge or Causes of Death Registers in 2,785 men from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, divided based on age at first diagnosis into early onset (= 65 years). The Finnish Defence Forces Basic Intellectual Ability Test comprises verbal, arithmetic, and visuospatial subtests and a total score (scores transformed into a mean of 100 and SD of 15). We used Cox proportional hazard models and adjusted for age at testing, childhood socioeconomic status, mother's age at delivery, parity, participant's birthweight, education, and stroke or coronary heart disease diagnosis. Results Lower cognitive ability total and verbal ability (hazard ratio [HR] per 1 SD disadvantage > 1.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-2.63) scores predicted higher early-onset any dementia risk across the statistical models; arithmetic and visuospatial ability scores were similarly associated with early-onset any dementia risk, but these associations weakened after covariate adjustments (HR per 1 SD disadvantage > 1.57, 95% CI 0.96-2.57). All associations were rendered non-significant when we adjusted for participant's education. Cognitive ability did not predict late-onset dementia risk. Conclusion These findings reinforce previous suggestions that lower cognitive ability in early life is a risk factor for early-onset dementia.Peer reviewe

BDNF Val66Met polymorphism moderates the association between sleep spindles and overnight visual recognition

A common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, Val66Met, has been reported to impair BDNF secretion and memory function. However, few studies have investigated the interaction of BDNF genotype and sleep characteristics, such as sleep spindles, that promote long-term potentiation during sleep. In this study we compared overnight visual memory between the carriers of BDNF Met and non-carriers (Val homozygotes), and examined how sleep spindle density associated with memory performance. The sample constituted of 151 adolescents (mean age 16.9 years; 69% Val homozygotes, 31% Met carriers). The learning task contained high and low arousal pictures from Interactive Affective Picture System. The learning task and all-night polysomnography were conducted at the homes of the adolescents. Slow (10–13 Hz) and fast (13–16 Hz) spindles were detected with automated algorithm. Neither post-sleep recognition accuracy nor spindle density differed between Val homozygotes and Met carriers. While frontal slow and fast spindle densities associated with better recognition accuracy in the entire sample, examining the allelic groups separately indicated paralleling associations in Val homozygotes only. Interaction analyses revealed a significant genotype-moderated difference in the associations between frontal fast sleep spindles and high arousal pictures. In sum, sleep spindles promote or indicate visual learning in Val homozygote adolescents but not in Met carriers. The result suggests that the role of sleep spindles in visual recognition memory is not equal across individuals but moderated by a common gene variant.Peer reviewe

Presleep physiological stress is associated with a higher cortical arousal in sleep and more consolidated REM sleep

How sleep regulates physiological stress in healthy individuals is not well understood. We explored the associations between naturally occurring pre-sleep physiological arousal and EEG power spectral density together with rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) continuity. One hundred and fifty-four individuals (mean age 16.9, SD 0.1 years) collected five samples of saliva between the evening (mean time 18:20) and bedtime (mean 23:00) by using swabs, and underwent an overnight in-home polysomnography. We calculated spectral density for REMS and non-rapid eye movement sleep (non-REMS), and the number and duration of REMS arousals (Peer reviewe