WASHINGTON: Untreated sleep apnea in children causes loss of grey matter – brain cells involved in movement, memory, emotions, speech, perception, decision making and self-control, researchers including one of Indian origin have found.
The finding points to a strong connection between this common sleep disturbance, which affects up to five per cent of all children, and the loss of neurons or delayed neuronal growth in the developing brain.
Researchers, including those from University of Chicago in the US, evaluated about 16 children aged between 7 and 11 years with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) overnight.
Each child went through neuro-cognitive testing and had their brain scanned with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The researchers compared the scans, plus neuro-cognitive test results, with MRI images from nine healthy children of the same age, gender, ethnicity and weight, who did not have apnea.
They also compared the 16 children with OSA to 191 MRI scans of children who were part of an existing paediatric-MRI database. (AGENCIES)
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