The relationship between poor sleep and inhibitory functions indicated by event-related potentials.
The present study focused on the relationship between normal variations of sleep and inhibitory functions as reflected in event-related potentials. For this reason one night of 21 healthy participants was analysed. After waking up all participants completed a visual Go/Nogo task. On the basis of a sleep disturbance index (SDI) the participants were separated into 8 SDI-good and 13 SDI-poor sleepers using a cluster analysis. The results showed that Nogo-N2 amplitude was smaller and Nogo-P3 latency longer in SDI-poor sleepers. Moreover, Go-P3 amplitude was smaller in SDI-poor sleepers. Performance parameters were not influenced by poor sleep. We concluded that poor sleep specifically affects the intensity of pre-motor inhibitory processes (Nogo-N2 amplitude), the speed to inhibit a motor response (Nogo-P3 latency) and the intensity of task-relevant information processing (Go-P3 amplitude). In further studies, it should be explored under which conditions such subliminal deficits also become relevant for overt behaviour.
Breimhorst
Markus
M
Institute for Occupational Physiology at Dortmund University, Ardeystr. 67, 44139, Dortmund, Germany. markusbreimhorst@gmx.de
Falkenstein
Michael
M
Marks
Anke
A
Griefahn
Barbara
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017286:Polysomnography; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*