Sleep Deprivation in Young and Healthy Subjects Is More Sensitively Identified by Higher Frequencies of Electrodermal Activity than by Skin Conductance Level Evaluated in the Time Domain

Abstract

We analyzed multiple measures of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) based on electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV) for young healthy subjects undergoing 24-h sleep deprivation. In this study, we have utilized the error awareness test (EAT) every 2 h (13 runs total), to evaluate the deterioration of performance. EAT consists of trials where the subject is presented words representing colors. Subjects are instructed to press a button (“Go” trials) or withhold the response if the word presented and the color of the word mismatch (“Stroop No-Go” trial), or the screen is repeated (“Repeat No-Go” trials). We measured subjects' (N = 10) reaction time to the “Go” trials, and accuracy to the “Stroop No-Go” and “Repeat No-Go” trials. Simultaneously, changes in EDA and HRV indices were evaluated. Furthermore, the relationship between reactiveness and vigilance measures and indices of sympathetic control based on HRV were analyzed. We found the performance improved to a stable level from 6 through 16 h of deprivation, with a subsequently sustained impairment after 18 h. Indices of higher frequencies of EDA related more to vigilance measures, whereas lower frequencies index (skin conductance leve, SCL) measured the reactiveness of the subject. We conclude that indices of EDA, including those of the higher frequencies, termed TVSymp, EDASymp, and NSSCRs, provide information to better understand the effect of sleep deprivation on subjects' autonomic response and performance.

Human Performance Deterioration Due to Prolonged Wakefulness Can Be Accurately Detected Using Time-Varying Spectral Analysis of Electrodermal Activity

“…Other researchers found a moderate correlation of spectral indices of HRV with participants' performance in PVT during sleep deprivation (Chua et al, 2012). In our previous study (Posada-Quintero et al, 2017), few significant differences were found in HRV parameters throughout the experiment. Only HRVLF exhibited a significant increase after 20 hours.…”

“…However, those studies did not explore the occurrence of rapid shifts (usual in the EDA signal) but focused only on the changes in SCL (low components of the signal). In a previous study, we found significant changes in the higher frequency components of EDA after 18 hours of sleep deprivation (Posada-Quintero et al, 2017). Hence, we expect that changes in the higher frequencies of the EDA signal correlate with the observed deterioration of participant performance resulting from prolonged wakefulness.…”

“…The latter two studies only analyzed the slow shifts represented in the SCL. Additionally, in our recent study involving healthy participants who underwent cognitive stress tests post-24-hour sleep deprivation, we found statistically significant changes in the indices that represent higher frequencies of EDA (NSSCRs, EDASymp, and TVSymp), not present in the LF shifts in level (SCL) (Posada-Quintero et al, 2017). For these studies, the above mentioned SCL and SCR indices of EDA were not directly compared to PVT, as the latter data were not simultaneously acquired.…”

“…This work presents the results of correlation analysis between indices of performance on the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) and noninvasive measures of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) based on heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity (EDA), during a 24-hour period of sleep deprivation. We recently conducted a study looking at the effects of prolonged wakefulness on participants performing the error awareness task (EAT) (Posada-Quintero, Bolkhovsky, Reljin, & Chon, 2017). We observed that high frequency (HF) dynamics of EDA known as the skin conductance responses (SCRs) were more sensitively correlated to sleep deprivation than were the slow dynamics, defined as the skin conductance level (SCL).…”

“…We observed that high frequency (HF) dynamics of EDA known as the skin conductance responses (SCRs) were more sensitively correlated to sleep deprivation than were the slow dynamics, defined as the skin conductance level (SCL). However, we could not directly compare with other studies looking at performance deterioration as a byproduct of prolonged wakefulness, because most studies measured participants' response to the PVT, not the EAT (Posada-Quintero et al, 2017). The PVT, which measures a person's reaction time (RT) to the presentation of concurrent stimuli, is a widely used standard for studying the effects of prolonged wakefulness, mainly because it has a proven strong correlation with both lack of sleep as well as with the circadian rhythm (Lim & Dinges, 2008).…”