Early Life Circadian Rhythm Disruptions Alters Brain and Behavior in Adulthood
Date
2021-08-25
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Abstract
Children typically sleep much more than adults, and sleep in infancy and childhood is thought to play an important role in brain and cognitive development. However, the problem with examining poor sleep in toddlers is that sleep quality is often confounded with other factors such as socioeconomic status, quality of housing, and fragmented family structure. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate sleep and circadian rhythm disruptions during postnatal period on behavior in adulthood using an animal model (C57B/6 mice) where it is possible to disentangle these various confounding factors. In particular, the current study is examining the consequences of early life circadian disruption on executive functioning and circadian rhythmicity in adulthood. In the first phase of the study, sleep/wake rhythms were impaired with disrupting light-dark cycle imposed the day of birth until weaning. At around 3 months of age, animals were evaluated on executive functioning (i.e., series of behavioral tests to assess anxiety level, spatial memory, and working memory), circadian rhythmicity, and neural complexity in key brain areas. Results suggest that early life circadian disruptions impair executive functioning, and neural complexity in key areas of the brain later in life. Circadian rhythms in adulthood do not appear to be affected by early life circadian disruption. In humans, sleep disruptions in early life is often confounded with other detrimental factors like environment or socioeconomic status. Here we provide evidence that early life sleep disruption, independent of such confounding factors, is sufficient to affect brain development and impair cognitive functions.
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behavioral neuroscience, circadian rhythms, brain development, neuron morphology
Citation
Ameen, R. W. (2021). Early Life Circadian Rhythm Disruptions Alters Brain and Behavior in Adulthood (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.