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Sleep Disorders Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea may be affecting your child’s intelligence


Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, Md. have found that children with obstructive sleep apnea may develop brain damage as a result of their disorder. The researchers compared MRI images of the brains of 19 children with severe obstructive sleep apnea to 12 children without this disorder. It was apparent from these scans that those children with obstructive sleep apnea had differences in two regions of the brain: the hippocampus, which is integral to learning and memory, and the right frontal cortex, which controls higher-level thinking. To further look at the cognitive effects that obstructive sleep apnea may have on children, the researchers compared the IQ of both groups of children. The children with obstructive sleep apnea had an average IQ test score of 85, while the children without the disorder scored 101 on average. "This should be a wake-up call to both parents and doctors that undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea might hurt children's brains," said Dr. Ann Halbower, lead study author and lung specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in a press release.


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