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.

睡眠损失是现代社会的主要问题。许多人愿意削减睡眠，以便为工作和社会需求腾出更多时间，而其他人则无法因轮班工作，正常衰老或睡眠障碍而获得所需的睡眠。睡眠损失对情绪，机敏，生产力和安全性有直接的影响，导致学校学习不良，汽车事故增加以及灾难性的工业错误。 实验研究中最可靠的发现是，睡眠损失导致反应时间缓慢和持续注意力的缺陷。一个昏昏欲睡的人有时能够以100％的精度表现；但是，随着睡眠损失程度恶化，它们会引起注意的失误（即遗漏或延迟的反应）。研究人员尚未完全理解睡眠丧失期间这些行为失误的大脑基础。由于在嗜睡期间观察到的性能缺陷类型，研究人员认为这些缺陷与额叶区域的功能障碍有关。大脑成像研究也有一些支持。我目前的研究的目的是了解大脑如何使用脑电图和事件相关电位等技术作为唤醒和注意力的措施来控制睡眠丧失期间的行为。在全部睡眠剥夺30小时后，我们将研究涉及额叶功能的任务执行过程中大脑活动的模式（例如，工作记忆或处理新颖的刺激）。此外，我们将在行为失误之前立即研究大脑活动，以预测性能失败。我们还旨在确定预测谁最脆弱或有弹性的因素（例如，年龄，性别，睡眠损失经验）。了解大脑如何控制睡眠损失挑战中唤醒和注意力的快速波动将改善我们对睡眠在唤醒功能中的作用的理解，以及我们对大脑功能的理解。此外，这项研究将导致在嗜睡条件下提高人类生产力和安全性的实际创新。