Adolescent sleep deprivation has long been associated with impaired memory consolidation, but the cellular mechanism has remained unclear. We tracked dendritic spine density across fourteen-night deprivation cycles in a rodent model, using two-photon imaging to observe pruning events in the medial prefrontal cortex. Contrary to the prevailing cortisol-driven hypothesis, pruning rates accelerated independently of measured cortisol markers, tracking instead with total wake-hours accumulated. These results suggest that circadian-independent pruning pathways may play a larger role in adolescent cognitive development than previously modeled, with direct implications for how sleep policy is discussed in secondary education settings.
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