title: Executive functions and the ability to sustain vigilance during sleep loss.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is considerable individual variability in the ability to sustain performance during sleep loss. Preliminary evidence suggests that individuals with higher trait-like activation/functioning of the prefrontal cortex may be less vulnerable to fatigue.
  
  
  METHODS
  We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 54 healthy volunteers who were assessed bi-hourly on a variant of the Psychomotor Vigilance Test during 41 h of sleep deprivation. A subset of these subjects, representing the top and bottom 25% of the sample based on their ability to sustain vigilance performance during sleep deprivation, were compared with respect to baseline neurocognitive abilities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sleep deprivation Resistant group (N = 13) scored significantly higher than the sleep deprivation Vulnerable (N = 13) group on all three baseline tasks assessing prefrontal executive function abilities (letter fluency, Stroop Color-Word test, Color Trails Form 2), whereas no differences were found on non-executive function tasks. Similarly, groups showed no differences on demographic variables including age, education, hand preference, morningness-eveningness preference, global intellectual ability, or pre-study sleep history.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that greater prefrontal/executive functioning may be protective against the adverse effects of sleep deprivation and suggest that baseline executive function testing may prove useful for prediction of resilience during sleep loss.
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. killgore@mclean.harvard.edu
authors.forename: William D S
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Killgore
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Grugle
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Reichardt
authors.forename: Desiree B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Killgore
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Balkin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult