Neurobehavioural and physiological consequences of sleep deprivation in humans

人类睡眠剥夺的神经行为和生理后果

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05146
• 负责人: Cote, Kimberly
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 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: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=611467
• 关键词: Neurobehavioural; physiological; consequences; sleep; deprivation

The functions of sleep remain largely a mystery. One way to investigate the functions of sleep is by examining the effects of varying amounts of sleep on specific brain processes. My lab has focused on the role of sleep in cognitive processing and emotion regulation. A large body of research has shown that sleep loss impairs alertness, attention, memory, and mood, but the neural basis of these impairments remains poorly understood. While subjective mood complaints have long been known to be a consequence of poor sleep, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the role of sleep in emotion regulation, including how the brain processes emotional information in pictures and facial expressions, and how sleep loss contributes to aggressive behaviour. Our recent work showed that one night of sleep deprivation (about 33 hours awake) led to behavioural and neural reactivity for threat-related Angry and Fearful facial expressions, yet a blunted response to Sad facial expressions. This differential processing for emotional expressions informs us about the nature of cognitive processes that are affected by sleep loss, and has significant implications for many sleep deprived groups. We were also the first to report that one night of sleep loss was associated with a substantial decrease in testosterone levels in men and an associated reduction in aggressive behaviour on a laboratory task. The research proposed in the next grant period will expand on these novel findings in a number of ways, as well as pursue new approaches to studying the role of sleep in emotion regulation. First, we will study a less extreme level of sleep disruption by examining sleep that is restricted to 3, 4, or 5 hours per night, over one or more nights; this is a level of sleep loss that is commonly experienced and leads to cumulative deficits in alertness and attention. We will further investigate the role of sleep in processing emotional information by examining brain responses to faces, pictures, and audio and video clips that vary in emotional valance (from neutral to positive and negative). In addition, we will again investigate the role of sleep and hormones in aggressive behaviour, by studying both men and women (while controlling for hormone use and phases of the menstrual cycle) using two different validated tasks of aggression. We will further explore the nature of the sleep-related change in emotion processing and aggressive behaviour by measuring resting heart rate because it is considered a marker of individuals’ ability to respond to affective information. Lastly, since REM sleep (the sleep stage commonly associated with dreaming) has been proposed to play a functional role in emotion regulation, we will examine the effects of selective REM sleep deprivation on emotion processing and memory. Specifically, we will explore whether REM sleep plays a role in both consolidation of emotional material as well as an adaptive function to lessen the “sting” of emotional stimuli. Examining physiological activity that is associated with altered perception and behaviour as a result of sleep loss will help us to understand how and why sleep loss impacts waking function. These studies will advance our knowledge of the basic functional role of sleep in waking cognitive function and emotion regulation. The outcomes of this research will have implications for understanding human behaviour in many sleep deprived groups, especially for those with a sleep disruption and affective component at play, such as children and adolescents, and forensic and psychiatric populations.

睡眠的功能在很大程度上仍然是一个谜。研究睡眠功能的一种方法是检查不同睡眠量对特定大脑过程的影响。我的实验室主要研究睡眠在认知处理和情绪调节中的作用。大量研究表明，睡眠不足会损害警觉性、注意力、记忆力和情绪，但人们对这些损害的神经基础仍知之甚少。研究睡眠在情绪调节中的作用，包括如何大脑处理图片和面部表情中的情绪信息，以及睡眠不足如何导致攻击性行为。我们最近的研究表明，一晚睡眠不足（大约清醒 33 小时）会导致与威胁相关的愤怒和恐惧面部表情的行为和神经反应。然而，对悲伤面部表情的迟钝反应让我们了解了受睡眠不足影响的认知过程的本质，并对许多睡眠不足的群体产生了重大影响。夜晚睡眠不足与男性睾酮水平大幅下降以及实验室任务中攻击性行为的减少有关。下一个资助期提出的研究将以多种方式扩展这些新发现，并继续进行下去。研究睡眠在情绪调节中的作用的新方法，我们将通过检查每晚 3、4 或 5 小时的睡眠来研究不太严重的睡眠干扰水平。睡眠不足的程度是常见的，会导致累积的睡眠不足我们将通过检查大脑对不同情绪价（从中性到积极和消极）的面孔、图片、音频和视频片段的反应，进一步研究睡眠在处理情绪信息中的作用。通过使用两种不同的经过验证的攻击性任务对男性和女性进行研究（同时控制激素的使用和月经周期的阶段），研究睡眠和激素在攻击性行为中的作用。我们将进一步探讨与睡眠相关的变化的本质。通过测量休息来处理情绪和攻击行为心率，因为它被认为是个体对情感信息做出反应的能力的标志。最后，由于快速眼动睡眠（通常与做梦相关的睡眠阶段）被认为在情绪调节中发挥着功能性作用，我们将研究心率的影响。具体来说，我们将探索快速眼动睡眠是否在巩固情绪材料以及减轻与检查生理活动相关的“刺痛”的适应性功能中发挥作用。结果改变了观念和行为睡眠不足的研究将帮助我们了解睡眠不足如何以及为何影响清醒功能。这些研究将增进我们对睡眠在清醒认知功能和情绪调节中的基本功能作用的认识。这项研究的结果将对理解人类行为产生影响。在许多睡眠不足的群体中，尤其是那些睡眠受到干扰和情感成分在起作用的人，例如儿童和青少年、法医和精神病人群。