The Effects of Acute Sleep Deprivation on Selective Attention

Abstract

It has been shown that performance in vigilance tasks deteriorates greatly after loss of sleep. It is hypothesized that deterioration in these and other tasks is largely due to a breakdown in the ability to attend selectively t o relevant information in the task. An experiment is described in which subjects' performance in a task involving ignoring irrelevant information was shown to deteriorate more after sleep loss than performance on the same task without irrelevant information present. It is suggested that sleep plays an important part in maintaining selective attention and the symptoms shown by sleep-deprived subjects are largely due t o a failure in selective attention.One of the most clearly observable effects of sleep deprivation is the rapid deterioration in performance on tasks of vigilance. A number of workers (Wilkinson, 1958(Wilkinson, , 1960Corcoran, 1962Corcoran, , 1964 Willlams et al., 1959) have demonstrated subjects' breakdown in performance in such tasks. The main feature of the tasks used in these studies is that they necessitate the subject attending over relatively long periods of time to detect small infrequent changes in a generally unchanging stimulus display. Clearly, then, anything which reduces the subject's ability to attend to one source of stimuli rather than to others will result in a deterioration in performance in vigilance tasks. The fact that deterioration due to sleep loss is most marked in those tasks requiring selective attention to one source of stimuli would seem to suggest that one function of sleep is the maintenance of this selective attention and that a result of sleep deprivation is a breakdown in this type of attention.From the above we can make the following prediction: that there will be greater deterioration in performance after sleep loss in the situation where there are irrelevant signals than in the situation where there are no irrelevant signals, and that the degree of this deterioration will increase with the number of irrelevant signals present. The type of task which would most effectively test this prediction would be one in which the subject had to respond to one set of signals of constant complexity, and at the same time ignore other irrelevant signals, the number of which would be varied. The task chosen was similar to that used by Rabbitt (1964) in his study on ignoring irrelevant information.

Functional Neuroanatomy of Human Slow Wave Sleep

“…Patients with orbitofrontal or anterior cingulate lesions usually present with various clinical signs such as impulsivity, loss of social constraints, bulimia, and distractibility. It is noteworthy that similar signs, such as childish humor (Kollar et al, 1966), disinhibited behavior and irritability (Bliss et al, 1959), distractibility (Norton, 1970), and perseverations (Horne, 1988), likewise are observed after short-term total sleep deprivation in man, the effects of which can be attributed primarily to SWS deprivation (Horne, 1993). Given the role of orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex in the regulation of emotions and behavior, it is also noteworthy that a recent meta-analysis shows that one of the main effects of sleep deprivation in humans is modification of affect (Pilcher and Huffcutt, 1996).…”

Sleep deprivation alters functioning within the neural network underlying the covert orienting of attention

“…Sleep-deprived individuals are impaired in both shifting attention towards relevant stimuli (Gunter et al, 1987;Norton, 1970) and ignoring irrelevant or potentially misleading information (McCarthy and Waters, 1997;Norton, 1970).…”

Functional neuroimaging of normal human sleep by positron emission tomography

“…Patients with orbito-frontal or anterior cingulate lesions are usually described as impulsive, disinhibited and distractible. Interestingly, related signs, such as childish humour (Kollar et al 1966), disinhibition and irritability (Bliss et al 1959), distractibility (Norton 1970), and perseverations (Horne 1988) are likewise observed after short-term total sleep deprivation in man. As orbito-frontal and anterior cingulate cortices are closely related to the regulation of emotions and behaviour, it is also noteworthy that a recent meta-analysis shows that one of the main eects of sleep deprivation in humans is modi®cation of aect (Pilcher and Hucutt 1996).…”