The Sleep EEG as a Marker of Intellectual Ability in School Age Children
Open accessAbstract
STUDY OBJECTIVES: To investigate the within-subject stability in the sleep EEG and the association between the sleep EEG and intellectual abilities in 9- to 12-year-old children. DESIGN: Intellectual ability (WISC-IV, full scale, fluid, and verbal IQ, working memory, speed of processing) were examined and all-night polysomnography was performed (2 nights per subject). SETTING: Sleep laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen healthy children (mean age 10.5 ± 1.0 years; 6 girls). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Spectral analysis was performed on artifact-free NREM sleep epochs (C3/A2). To determine intra-individual stability and inter-individual variability of the sleep EEG, power spectra were used as feature vectors for the estimation of Euclidean distances, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated for the 2 nights. Sleep spindle peaks were identified for each individual and individual sigma band power was determined. Trait-like aspects of the sleep EEG were observed for sleep stage variables and spectral power. Within-subject distances were smaller than between-subject distances and ICC values ranged from 0.72 to 0.96. Correlations between spectral power in individual frequency bins and intelligence scores revealed clusters of positive associations in the alpha, sigma, and beta range for full scale IQ, fluid IQ, and working memory. Similar to adults, sigma power correlated with full scale (r = 0.67) and fluid IQ (r = 0.65), but not with verbal IQ. Spindle peak frequency was negatively related to full scale IQ (r = -0.56). CONCLUSIONS: The sleep EEG during childhood shows high within-subject stability and may be a marker for intellectual ability.
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In children and adults, spindle number and density strongly correlate with IQ scores and overnight retention of memories.
“In children and adults, spindle number and density strongly correlate with IQ scores (106, 395, 439, 847, 1038, 1039) as well as overnight retention of memories (213, 1057, 1230).”
From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [439]
The ‘Relationship between Cognitive Abilities and the Sleep EEG’ section reports that spindle peak frequency and relative sigma power were associated with IQ in school-age children, and notes agreement with earlier adult findings. It does not establish that spindle number or density strongly correlates with IQ; those are different measures. The overnight-memory claim has a separate group of citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Geiger, A., Huber, R., Kurth, S., Ringli, M., Jenni, O. G., & Achermann, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Achermann, Peter
- Venue
- Sleep
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-02
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 181-189
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- PMC
- PMC3022938
- OpenAlex
- W164316344
- Cited by
- 148
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 6.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Kanton Zürich
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (114923, 320030)
- Universitätsspital Zürich
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- sleep EEG, intellectual ability, intelligence quotient, elementary school students, NREM sleep, sleep spindles, EEG spectral power, working memory, fluid intelligence, verbal intelligence, sleep stages
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Aging, Child, Cognition, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Intelligence Tests, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Reference Values, Sleep, Reproducibility of Results, Polysomnography
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