Cognition Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cognition, including details on psychology, neuroscience, memory, brain theory.

The neural basis of interindividual variability in inhibitory efficiency after sleep deprivation.

Chuah YM, Venkatraman V, Dinges DF, Chee MW

Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Singapore Health Services, Singapore, 169611.

Sleep deprivation results in the loss of our ability to suppress a prepotent response. The extent of decline in this executive function varies across individuals. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the neural correlates of sleep deprivation-induced differences in inhibitory efficiency. Participants performed a go/no-go task after normal sleep and after 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Regardless of the extent of change in inhibitory efficiency, sleep deprivation lowered go/no-go sustained, task-related activation of the ventral and anterior prefrontal (PFC) regions bilaterally. However, individuals better able to maintain inhibitory efficiency after sleep deprivation could be distinguished by lower stop-related, phasic activation of the right ventral PFC during rested wakefulness. These persons also showed a larger rise in such activation both here and in the right insula after sleep deprivation relative to those whose inhibitory efficiency declined.

Published 6 July 2006 in J Neurosci, 26(27): 7156-62.
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