Impaired decision making following 49 h of sleep deprivation

Abstract

Summary Sleep deprivation reduces regional cerebral metabolism within the prefrontal cortex, the brain region most responsible for higher‐order cognitive processes, including judgment and decision making. Accordingly, we hypothesized that two nights of sleep loss would impair decision making quality and lead to increased risk‐taking behavior on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which mimics real‐world decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Thirty‐four healthy participants completed the IGT at rested baseline and again following 49.5 h of sleep deprivation. At baseline, volunteers performed in a manner similar to that seen in most samples of healthy normal individuals, rapidly learning to avoid high‐risk decks and selecting more frequently from advantageous low‐risk decks as the game progressed. After sleep loss, however, volunteers showed a strikingly different pattern of performance. Relative to rested baseline, sleep‐deprived individuals tended to choose more frequently from risky decks as the game progressed, a pattern similar to, though less severe than, previously published reports of patients with lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Although risky decision making was not related to participant age when tested at rested baseline, age was negatively correlated with advantageous decision making on the IGT, when tested following sleep deprivation (i.e. older subjects made more risky choices). These findings suggest that cognitive functions known to be mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including decision making under conditions of uncertainty, may be particularly vulnerable to sleep loss and that this vulnerability may become more pronounced with increased age.

Reward-Seeking Behavior in Human Narcolepsy

“…In contrast, healthy sleep deprived subjects have shown increased risk-taking on various gambling tasks and questionnaires, such as the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS), the Evaluation of Risk (EVAR) scale, and the BART. 38,40,41 Possibly, sleepiness also increases risk-taking behavior in narcolepsy with cataplexy, but this effect is masked by their hypocretin deficiency. However, this would not explain the findings in the non-hypocretin deficient narcolepsy without cataplexy group.…”

Association between sleep‐disordered breathing, sleep–wake pattern, and cognitive impairment among patients with chronic heart failure

“…3,4 Sleep loss and sleep fragmentation are in other contexts known to affect cognitive functions such as memory encoding, consolidation, plasticity, and reconsolidation. 5 Furthermore, executive functions, including decision-making processes, 6 as well as attention and psychomotor speed are also affected. 7,8 It has been described that elderly individuals with mild to moderate CHF often have a mild cognitive dysfunction.…”

Recovery sleep after extended wakefulness restores elevated A 1 adenosine receptor availability in the human brain

“…sleep deprivation | cognitive performance | interindividual differences | depression | sleep homeostasis S leep loss is known to impair almost every aspect of cognition, such as learning (1), long-term memory consolidation (2), attention and psychomotor vigilance (PVT) (3), and executive functions (4), including decision making (5) and emotional control (6). Sleep deprivation further typically alters the frequency distribution of the waking electroencephalogram (EEG) as an indicator of alertness corresponding to cognitive performance (7).…”