Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

Sleep’s impact on music processing in the developing brain

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Rigel Baron¹ (rigel.baron22@stjohns.edu), Yan Yu¹; ¹St. John's University

Sleep is a critical function of the human body, playing a significant role in the developing brain. Despite what is known about the value of sleep, there is currently a lack of understanding regarding the relationship between sleepiness and music processing in the developing brain. The purpose of the present study is to examine the potential link between subjective measures of sleepiness and objective measures of cortical function in children. As a refined measure of brain function, the present study utilized a six feature passive listening music oddball paradigm with deviant stimuli altering intensity, location, pitch, rhythm, slide, and timbre. Children aged five to 10 were presented with the paradigm, then asked to rate their level of wakefulness on a scale of one (fully alert) to five (exhausted) using a pictorial sleepiness scale. Children's responses varied between one, two, and three, with no children answering four or five. Children were partitioned into three groups based on their responses, with group one being the most wakeful and group three being the least wakeful. Preliminary results suggest the least wakeful group (group three) had more positive event-related potential (ERP) responses across hemispheres in all six conditions, possibly indicating a lack of focus or attention on the stimuli. Groups one and two displayed more negative ERP amplitudes than group three. Group one presented intermediate ERP amplitudes under intensity and pitch change conditions. Overall, preliminary data suggests there is a relationship between subjective sleepiness and ERP responses to music changes in children.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory