Thursday, May 2, 2024
5/2/2024
Abstract Despite the critical role of sleep in brain development during infancy, little is known about the impact of early sleep disturbance in typical and atypical development. Sleep disruption occurs in up to 80% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A complete understanding of sleep problems in the first year of life will aid in both the early detection of risk and prompt intervention prior to the onset of symptoms. This project will improve our knowledge of sleep in infancy by longitudinally examining how distinct sleep metrics, such as sleep latency, sleep time, and sleep efficiency, relate to functional brain networks and later developmental trajectories. The proposed study will leverage data from two NIH-funded longitudinal studies to (i) examine how sleep latency and thalamocortical connectivity may predict diagnostic outcome in infants at varying familial likelihood for ASD (Aim 1) and (ii) investigate normative trajectories of objectively measured sleep and thalamocortical connectivity in an unprecedented sample of infants (Aim 2). About 20% of infant siblings of children with ASD will be diagnosed with ASD themselves, while another 30% will show subclinical ASD symptoms. Thus, studying infant siblings provides a unique opportunity to examine early ASD markers. Prior work has shown altered functional networks in infants who later receive a clinical diagnosis. This provides insight into the divergence of neurodevelopment in these infants, yet the impact of early sleep disturbance on brain networks has yet to be elucidated. Here, resting-state fMRI and behavioral data from the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) will be used to analyze the relationship between sleep, functional connectivity, and ASD outcome. Ultimately, a greater understanding of sleep in typical development is needed to properly delineate it in neurodevelopmental disorders. However, there is a paucity of well-sampled, longitudinal studies characterizing typical brain development in infancy and no study has implemented objective sleep measures in a large population of infants. The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study is an ongoing longitudinal project that collects neuroimaging, behavioral, and objective sleep measures from a cohort of ~7,500 infants. In the proposed project, resting-state fMRI data will be used to relate objective sleep metrics collected through actigraphy to functional connectivity and clinically assessed behavioral outcomes. Emily Chiem will conduct these studies as a UCLA graduate student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology program. She will receive guidance from her sponsor, who has vast expertise in neurodevelopment, pediatric imaging, advanced MRI methods, and ASD research, as well as mentors with expertise in pediatric sleep. The rich sleep and neuroimaging communities, training opportunities, and resources available at UCLA makes it an ideal training environment. The fellowship support will allow the candidate to receive comprehensive MRI training, learn advanced data-analytic approaches, improve her mentorship skills and, critically, it will afford her protected time to focus on her own research thus propelling her independent research career.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
