Executive Functions are not Affected by 24 Hours of Sleep Deprivation: A Color-Word Stroop Task Study

Abstract

Background:Sleep is an important factor affecting cognitive performance. Sleep deprivation results in fatigue, lack of concentration, confusion and sleepiness along with anxiety, depression and irritability. Sleep deprivation can have serious consequences in professions like armed forces and medicine where quick decisions and actions need to be taken. Color-Word Stroop task is one of the reliable tests to assess attention and it analyzes the processing of information in two dimensions i.e., reading of words and naming of colour. The evidence regarding the effect of sleep deprivation on Stroop interference is conflicting. The present study evaluated the effect of 24 hours of sleep deprivation on reaction time and interference in Stroop task.Materials and Methods:The present study was done on 30 healthy male medical student volunteers in the age group of 18-25 years after taking their consent and clearance from Institute Ethics Committee. Recordings of Stroop task were at three times: baseline (between 7-9 am), after 12 hours (7-9 pm) and after 24 hours (7-9 am, next day). The subjects were allowed to perform normal daily activities.Results:The study revealed a significant increase in reaction time after 24 hours of sleep deprivation in comparison to baseline and after 12 hours of sleep deprivation. There was no significant change in interference and facilitation after sleep deprivation in comparison to baseline. The number of errors also did not show any significant change after sleep deprivation.Conclusion:The study indicated that there was slowing of responses without change in executive functions after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. It is probable that 24 hours of sleep deprivation does not bring about change in areas of brain affecting executive functions in healthy individuals who have normal sleep cycle. The present study indicated that in professions like armed forces and medicine working 24 hours at a stretch can lead to decrease in motor responses without affecting information processing and judgment ability.

Determination Of Mental Stress Effects On The Cognitive Function In Medical Students Of Lumhs At The Time Of Examination

“…The findings of monochrome reading which was found more in stressed group A compared to relaxed group B participants. Our findings of monochrome reading are consistent to previous studies 21,22 25 . Karthikeyan et al 24 assessed Stroop color word test (stressor) for induction of stress and consequently the electrocardiogram and heart rate variability were detected.…”

“…The findings of present study showed an increase in time domain in stress persons from exercise 1 to 4 as shown above. The findings are comparable to previous studies[21][22][23][24] . Ghimri et al22 has recently reported a study from Nepal.…”

“…A previous study 21 suggested that the picture and color-word Stroop task tests measure different cognitive functions. Time domain of performance during Stroop task test decreases with increasing age and with education levels; lower the education level, more time is taken 21 . Improvement in performance occurs with repeated practice, has been reported.…”

Naturally occurring circadian rhythm and sleep duration are related to executive functions in early adulthood

“…Several experimental sleep deprivation studies have reported domain-specific associations with performancebased EFs (Banks and Dinges, 2007;Jackson et al, 2013;Lo et al, 2012). Some studies have reported slower reaction times, but no weakening of inhibitory control in sleepdeprived subjects (Bratzke et al, 2012;Cain et al, 2011;Dixit and Mittal, 2015), while others reported poorer performance in tasks requiring higher executive functions, such as risk-taking (Rossa et al, 2014) or divergent thinking (Vartanian et al, 2014), but with no effect on reaction times.…”

Sleep deprivation affects interference control: A diffusion model analysis.

“…In addition, to test the SD effect on interference control (attending to task-relevant and/or suppressing task-irrelevant information), interference tasks, such as the Stroop (1935), Simon (Simon & Rudell, 1967), and Eriksen flanker tasks (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974), have often been used. Most related studies have shown that interference effects are not modulated by SD (Bratzke et al, 2012; Cain et al, 2011; Dixit & Mittal, 2015; Grant et al, 2018; Hsieh et al, 2007, 2010; Sagaspe et al, 2006; Tsai et al, 2005), except for two studies reporting increased interference effects after SD (Gevers et al, 2015; Ramdani et al, 2013). The unchanged interference effects seem to suggest that interference control is not modulated by or is insensitive to SD.…”