The Interplay of Motor, Cognition, and Sleep Development across Toddlerhood

Presenter

Imuetiyan Elizabeth Eweka

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Rebecca Spencer, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A60, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 3 (A41-A60) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

In early childhood, sleep is important because it supports cognitive development and influences other elements of child development such as social learning. Infants and toddlers’ 24-hour sleep duration ranges from 12– 20 hours, and this changes with age (Mason et al., 2021; Page et al., 2018). Given the multitude of factors affecting a toddler's crucial developmental years, cognitive progress has been highlighted as a pivotal aspect of their developmental milestones. Sleep has a significant impact on cognition. Within the first two years of life, sleep begins to consolidate from multiple naps plus overnight sleep to longer overnight sleep. Variations in sleep patterns, like the timing of bedtime and the midpoint of sleep, could potentially influence cognitive development. The current study aimed to examine toddlers’ (16 and 21-month-olds) cognitive development in conjunction with sleep. Twenty-four toddlers were tested on the Cognitive and Motor subscales of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Their sleep was measured via actigraphy for multiple days and polysomnography for one night.The regression analysis demonstrated that sleep variability decreases with cognitive subscale scores, remaining consistent with preliminary results further suggesting a relationship but no significant trend over nighttime sleep, R2= 0.1548, F(1, 2.44)= 0.141, p=0.141. These results contrast with Zhang et al. (2022) who found that greater nighttime sleep was associated with being an indicator of greater cognitive development.The current study suggests sleep variability’s impact on cognitive scores differs from previous studies. Additional data will be collected. 

Keywords

Cognition , Sleep, Child Development , Memory, Brain Physiology

Research Area

Neuroscience and Cognitive Science

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