Center for Adolescent Reward, Rhythms and Sleep Project 1
University of Pittsburgh
Summary
Adolescence is a time of heightened reward sensitivity and greater impulsivity. On top of this, many teenagers experience chronic sleep deprivation and misalignment of their circadian rhythms due to biological shifts in their sleep/wake patterns paired with early school start times, which may increase the risk for substance use (SU). However, what impact circadian rhythm and sleep disruption either together or independently have on the neuronal circuitry that controls reward and cognition, or if there are interventions that might help to modify these disruptions is unknown. Project 1 (P1), specifically examines homeostatic and circadian characteristics as mechanisms linking habitual sleep patterns, reward and cognitive control (at subjective, behavioral, and circuit levels), and longitudinal substance use risk.
Description
P1 will study 200 adolescents ages 13-18 in a 48-h to 60-h laboratory study. Participants will monitor sleep patterns at home for 2 weeks with actigraphy and sleep diary, and will also complete fMRI measures of reward and cognitive control. This will be followed by a 48-to-60-hour laboratory visit. The laboratory session includes two nights of polysomnography (PSG) sleep studies (the second night of PSG was halted for all participants as of January 2026), separated by 28 h of an ultradian sleep/wake protocol-every 120-minutes, there will be an 80-minute period of waking, followed by a 40-minut…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 13–18 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 13-18 years * Currently enrolled in a traditional high-school (not cyber- or home-schooled) \[school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic are an exception to this\] * Physically and psychiatrically healthy * Provision of written informed consent and assent Exclusion Criteria: * outside age range above * have a history of alcohol, cannabis, or illicit drug use greater than weekly use in the past year * have serious medical or neurological disorders, including history of seizures * have serious psychiatric disorders (e.g. bipolar disorder and schizophrenia) * taking…
Interventions
- BehavioralUltradian sleep/wake protocol
120-minute schedule, consisting of 80 minutes awake followed by a 40 minute sleep opportunity for up to 36 hours
Location
- Western Psychiatric HospitalPittsburgh, Pennsylvania