Working memory impairment and its associated sleep-related respiratory parameters in children with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objective: Working memory deficits in children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have been reported in previous studies, but the results were inconclusive. This study tried to address this issue by delineating working memory functions into executive processes and storage/maintenance components based on Baddeley's working memory model.

Methods: Working memory and basic attention tasks were administered on 23 OSA children aged 8-12 years and 22 age-, education-, and general cognitive functioning-matched controls.