Adolescent sleep and the foundations of prefrontal cortical development and dysfunction. (November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Anastasiades, Paul G.; de Vivo, Luisa; Bellesi, Michele; Jones, Matt W.
• Is Part Of: Progress in neurobiology. Volume 218(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Subjects: Neurodevelopment -- Mental health -- Sleep disruption -- Synapses -- Glia -- Adolescence; Neurobiology -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Neurobiologie -- Périodiques; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102338
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-0082

Abstract

Abstract: Modern life poses many threats to good-quality sleep, challenging brain health across the lifespan. Curtailed or fragmented sleep may be particularly damaging during adolescence, when sleep disruption by delayed chronotypes and societal pressures coincides with our brains preparing for adult life via intense refinement of neural connectivity. These vulnerabilities converge on the prefrontal cortex, one of the last brain regions to mature and a central hub of the limbic-cortical circuits underpinning decision-making, reward processing, social interactions and emotion. Even subtle disruption of prefrontal cortical development during adolescence may therefore have enduring impact. In this review, we integrate synaptic and circuit mechanisms, glial biology, sleep neurophysiology and epidemiology, to frame a hypothesis highlighting the implications of adolescent sleep disruption for the neural circuitry of the prefrontal cortex. Convergent evidence underscores the importance of acknowledging, quantifying and optimizing adolescent sleep's contributions to normative brain development and to lifelong mental health. Highlights: The world's adolescents are getting less sleep than they need, mirroring a rise in adolescent mental health problems. The prefrontal cortex undergoes developmental refinement of neural circuitry and glial signalling during adolescence. Adolescent prefrontal development is sensitive to sleep disruption, with potentially lifelong impact on our mental health. Cross-species, longitudinal studies of sleep architecture and its influence on prefrontal cellular maturation are needed.