REM sleep and emotional face memory in typically-developing children and children with autism

• We assessed sleep and face recognition memory in healthy and children with autism.
• Children with autism had more parietal sleep EEG theta and slower reaction times after sleep.
• We examined the relationship between sleep and memory in both groups.
• EEG activity was differently correlated with face recognition in both groups.
• Results show atypical cortical organization and information processing in autism.

Relationship between REM sleep and memory was assessed in 13 neurotypical and 13 children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A neutral/positive/negative face recognition task was administered the evening before (learning and immediate recognition) and the morning after (delayed recognition) sleep. The number of rapid eye movements (REMs), beta and theta EEG activity over the visual areas were measured during REM sleep. Compared to neurotypical children, children with ASD showed more theta activity and longer reaction time (RT) for correct responses in delayed recognition of neutral faces. Both groups showed a positive correlation between sleep and performance but different patterns emerged: in neurotypical children, accuracy for recalling neutral faces and overall RT improvement overnight was correlated with EEG activity and REMs; in children with ASD, overnight RT improvement for positive and negative faces correlated with theta and beta activity, respectively. These results suggest that neurotypical and children with ASD use different sleep-related brain networks to process faces.