Memory consolidation of socially relevant stimuli during sleep in healthy children and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: What you can see in their eyes

•Sleep in healthy children fostered the memory recognition of face pictures.•In children with ADHD + ODD the face recognition was not improved after sleep.•Pupillometry is an appropriate measurement of sleep-dependent memory consolidation.•Sleep had no impact on emotional picture ratings.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) display deficits in sleep-dependent memory consolidation, and being comorbid with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), results in deficits in face processing. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of sleep in recognizing faces in children with ADHD + ODD. Sixteen healthy children and 16 children diagnosed with ADHD + ODD participated in a sleep and a wake condition. During encoding (sleep condition at 8 p.m.; wake condition at 8 a.m.) pictures of faces were rated according to their emotional content; the retrieval session (12 h after encoding session) contained a recognition task including pupillometry. Pupillometry and behavioral data revealed that healthy children benefited from sleep compared to wake with respect to face picture recognition; in contrast recognition performance in patients with ADHD + ODD was not improved after sleep compared to wake. It is discussed whether in patients with ADHD + ODD social stimuli are preferentially consolidated during daytime.