Electrophysiological measures of alertness and performance during sleep deprivation

睡眠剥夺期间警觉性和表现的电生理测量

• 批准号: 229727-2009
• 负责人: Cote, Kimberly
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Brock University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=524239
• 关键词: Electrophysiological; measures; alertness; performance; during

Sleep loss is a major problem in modern society. Many people willingly cut down on their sleep to make more time for work and social demands, while others cannot get the sleep they need because of shift work, normal aging, or sleep disorders. Sleep loss has immediate consequences for mood, alertness, productivity, and safety, leading to poor learning in schools, increased automobile accidents, and catastrophic industrial errors. The most reliable finding from experimental studies is that sleep loss leads to slowed reaction time and deficits in sustained attention. A sleepy person may be able to perform with 100 percent accuracy at times; however, they will experience lapses in attention (that is, missed or delayed responses) which occur more frequently and for longer periods of time as the degree of sleep loss worsens. Researchers do not yet fully understand the brain basis of these behavioural lapses during sleep loss. Because of the type of performance deficits observed during sleepiness, researchers theorize that these deficits are related to dysfunction of the frontal brain regions. There is also some support for this from brain imaging studies. The goal of my current research is to understand how the brain controls behaviour during sleep loss using techniques like EEG and event-related potentials as measures of arousal and attention. Following 30 hours of total sleep deprivation, we will look at patterns of brain activity during performance of tasks involving frontal lobe function (e.g., working memory or processing novel stimuli). Moreover, we will investigate brain activity immediately prior to behavioural lapses in order to predict performance failure. We also aim to identify factors that predict who will be most vulnerable or resilient to sleep loss (e.g., age, gender, experience with sleep loss). Understanding how the brain controls rapid fluctuations in arousal and attention during a sleep loss challenge will improve our understanding of the role of sleep in waking function, and our understanding of brain function in general. Moreover, this research will lead to practical innovations for improving human productivity and safety under conditions of sleepiness.

睡眠不足是现代社会的一个主要问题。许多人自愿减少睡眠，以便腾出更多时间工作和社交，而另一些人则因为轮班工作、正常衰老或睡眠障碍而无法获得所需的睡眠。睡眠不足会对情绪、警觉性、生产力和安全产生直接影响，导致学校学习不佳、车祸增加和灾难性的工业错误。 实验研究最可靠的发现是，睡眠不足会导致反应时间减慢和持续注意力缺陷。一个困倦的人有时可能能够百分百准确地执行任务；然而，随着睡眠不足程度的加重，他们会出现注意力不集中（即反应缺失或反应迟缓）的情况，这种情况会更频繁、持续时间更长。研究人员尚未完全了解睡眠不足期间这些行为失误的大脑基础。由于在困倦期间观察到的表现缺陷类型，研究人员推测这些缺陷与额叶脑区域的功能障碍有关。脑成像研究也对此提供了一些支持。我目前研究的目标是了解大脑如何使用脑电图和事件相关电位等技术来控制睡眠不足期间的行为，作为唤醒和注意力的衡量标准。在完全睡眠不足 30 小时后，我们将观察执行涉及额叶功能的任务（例如工作记忆或处理新刺激）期间大脑活动的模式。此外，我们将在行为失误之前立即调查大脑活动，以预测表现失败。我们还旨在确定预测谁最容易或最容易遭受睡眠不足影响的因素（例如年龄、性别、睡眠不足经历）。了解大脑在睡眠不足挑战期间如何控制觉醒和注意力的快速波动将提高我们对睡眠在清醒功能中的作用的理解，以及我们对大脑总体功能的理解。此外，这项研究还将带来实用的创新，以提高人类在困倦条件下的生产力和安全性。