title: Post learning sleep improves cognitive-emotional decision-making: evidence for a 'deck B sleep effect' in the Iowa Gambling Task.
abstract: The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is widely used to assess real life decision-making impairment in a wide variety of clinical populations. Our study evaluated how IGT learning occurs across two sessions, and whether a period of intervening sleep between sessions can enhance learning. Furthermore, we investigate whether pre-sleep learning is necessary for this improvement. A 200-trial version of the IGT was administered at two sessions separated by wake, sleep or sleep and wake (time-of-day control). Participants were categorized as learners and non-learners based on initial performance in session one. In session one, participants initially preferred the high-frequency reward decks B and D, however, a subset of learners decreased choice from negative expected value 'bad' deck B and increased choices towards with a positive expected value 'good' decks (decks C and D). The learners who had a period of sleep (sleep and sleep/wake control conditions) between sessions showed significantly larger reduction in choices from deck B and increase in choices from good decks compared to learners that had intervening wake. Our results are the first to show that post-learning sleep can improve performance on a complex decision-making task such as the IGT. These results provide new insights into IGT learning and have important implications for understanding the neural mechanisms of "sleeping on" a decision.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Corrine J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Seeley
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Beninger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Carlyle T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012890:Sleep; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult