title: Influence of acute sleep loss on the neural correlates of alerting, orientating and executive attention components.
abstract: The Attention Network Test (ANT) is deemed to assess the alerting, orientating and executive components of human attention. Capitalizing on the opportunity to investigate three facets of attention in a single task, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the effect of sleep deprivation (SD) on brain responses associated with the three attentional components elicited by the ANT. Twelve healthy volunteers were scanned in two conditions 1 week apart, after a normal night of sleep (rested wakefulness, RW) or after one night of total sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation was associated with a global increase in reaction times, which did not affect specifically any of the three attention effects. Brain responses associated with the alerting effect did not differ between RW and SD. Higher-order attention components (orientating and conflict effects) were associated with significantly larger thalamic responses during SD than during RW. These results suggest that SD influences different components of human attention non-selectively, through mechanisms that might either affect centrencephalic structures maintaining vigilance or ubiquitously perturb neuronal function. Compensatory responses can counter these effects transiently by recruiting thalamic responses, thereby supporting thalamocortical function.
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muto
authors.forename: Anahita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaffii-le Bourdiec
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matarazzo
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Foret
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mascetti
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jaspar
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vandewalle
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Degueldre
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Balteau
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luxen
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Collette
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maquet
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult