Brain Damage Newsroom

Sleep Apnea In Children Linked To Lower IQ Scores

"This is paving new ground, scary new ground," said Dr. Ronald D. Chervin, the director of the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center, who was not associated with the study. "The fact that children with sleep apnea would score worse on neurocognitive testing than normal children is not new. The new part is actually showing evidence of neurochemical changes in the brain."

For the research, published in the Aug. 22 online issue of the journal Public Library of Science Medicine, Dr. Ann Halbower, medical director of the pediatric sleep disorders program at the Hopkins' Children's Center in Baltimore, and colleagues looked at 31 children between the ages of 6 and 16. Nineteen of them had untreated severe sleep apnea, a condition associated with repeated nighttime awakenings and daytime grogginess.

Using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers found that those children with sleep apnea had significant changes in two brain regions associated with higher mental function: the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex. They also determined that the children had altered ratios of three brain chemicals -- N-aceytl aspartate, creatine and choline -- which are indicative of brain damage. Read more at healthfinder.gov