Sleep and Functional Neurobiology Laboratory, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), University of Chile, El Líbano 5524, Macul, Santiago, Chile.
Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Disease, University of Michigan, North Ingalls Building, 10th Floor, 300 N. Ingalls Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5406, USA.
Sleep Med. 2019 Dec;64:116-122. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2019.05.023. Epub 2019 Jul 5.
Iron deficiency is the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency worldwide. There is evidence that iron deficiency produces alterations in the developing brain, eventually leading to long-lasting effects on various cognitive functions.
Here, we investigated motor learning and its consolidation after sleep in adolescents who sustained iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in infancy, compared to healthy controls, in the context of a long-term follow-up Chilean research project. Fifty-three adolescents who formerly had iron deficiency anemia as infants and 40 control adolescents practiced a sequential motor finger tapping task, before and after a night of sleep. Performance was measured at the end of learning, 30 min later (boost effect), and the next morning.
Revealed slower learning in subjects with infant iron deficiency anemia than control subjects, followed by a proportionally similar performance boost at 30 min. Performance remained stable overnight in healthy controls but further improved in infant IDA adolescents, suggesting a beneficial effect of post-training sleep on the consolidation of incompletely learned motor skills. In particular, overnight gains in performance were observed in female, but not male infant iron deficiency anemic subjects, suggesting a gender effect.
Our results indicate long-lasting motor learning deficits in infant IDA adolescents and provide support to the hypothesis that post-training sleep might, to some extent, compensate for hampered motor learning during wakefulness.
铁缺乏是全球最普遍的微量营养素缺乏症。有证据表明，铁缺乏会导致发育中的大脑发生变化，最终对各种认知功能产生持久影响。
在这里，我们在长期随访的智利研究项目中，调查了婴儿期患有缺铁性贫血（IDA）的青少年在睡眠后运动学习及其巩固的情况，并与健康对照组进行了比较。53 名曾在婴儿期患有缺铁性贫血的青少年和 40 名健康对照组的青少年在睡前和睡眠后进行了顺序手指敲击任务练习。在学习结束时、30 分钟后（增强效应）和第二天早上测量了表现。
与健康对照组相比，患有婴儿期缺铁性贫血的受试者的学习速度较慢，随后在 30 分钟时表现出相似的增强效应。健康对照组的表现在夜间保持稳定，但婴儿 IDA 青少年的表现进一步提高，表明训练后睡眠对不完全学习的运动技能的巩固有有益影响。特别是，在患有婴儿期缺铁性贫血的女性受试者中观察到了夜间表现的提高，而男性受试者则没有，这表明存在性别效应。
我们的研究结果表明，婴儿 IDA 青少年存在持久的运动学习缺陷，并为训练后睡眠可能在一定程度上补偿清醒状态下运动学习障碍的假设提供了支持。
