# Brain-behavior vulnerability to sleep loss in children: a dimensional study of attention and impulsivity

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMMA PENDLETON BRADLEY HOSPITAL · 2022 · $551,118

## Abstract

Project Summary
Children and adolescents increasingly experience insufficient or poorly timed sleep as early school start times
collide with maturational changes in sleep regulation. However, we lack a deep understanding of both the
brain-behavior consequences of this sleep loss and the factors that distinguish which children may be
increasingly vulnerable and which are comparatively resilient to its effects. This is particularly salient for the
brain-behavior mechanisms underlying attention and impulsivity: two cognitive domains which are acutely
impacted by sleep loss, are critical for academic success, and are core aspects of neurodevelopmental
disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD). Attempts to address these issues are
hindered by limited mechanistic studies, overreliance on data from adults, and the use of neurotypical samples
only. Thus, this R01 project tackles these challenges with a within-subject at-home sleep restriction experiment
with combined methods of fMRI, neurocognitive testing, EEG, and circadian physiology to bear on this
important problem. We aim to enroll (over five years) 150, 10-13-year-old children across levels of inattention
and impulsivity. We will compare a sleep optimized baseline to 5 nights of sleep restriction. Each child is
characterized on several attention and impulsivity metrics to compile baseline risk scores for each domain.
Resting neural arousal (waking frontal EEG theta power) and circadian timing (melatonin onset phase angle)
index sleep-relevant physiology as candidate mechanisms altering a child’s resilience to sleep loss. Repeated
functional magnetic resonance imaging using task-based and resting paradigms, with complex modeling of
behavior variability characterizes sleep loss’s impact on attention and impulsivity. A performance battery
indexes neurocognitive impairments relevant for academic achievement. Finally, machine learning is used to
determine examine distinct phenotypes of baseline risk factors and sleep-loss vulnerability in our sample. In
sum, this project will advance both NICHD and NIMH’s goal to understand mechanisms of complex behavior;
here, consequences and mediators of sleep loss for children.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10465188
- **Project number:** 5R01HD103665-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMMA PENDLETON BRADLEY HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Jared Meyer Saletin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $551,118
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-09 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10465188

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10465188, Brain-behavior vulnerability to sleep loss in children: a dimensional study of attention and impulsivity (5R01HD103665-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10465188. Licensed CC0.

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