CHRONIC SLEEP DEFICIT AND PERFORMANCE OF A SUSTAINED ATTENTION TASK-AN ELECTROOCULOGRAPHY STUDY

• Published in: Chronobiology international Vol. 27; no. 5; pp. 934 - 944
• Main Authors: Fafrowicz, Magdalena, Oginska, Halszka, Mojsa-Kaja, Justyna, Marek, Tadeusz, Golonka, Krystyna, Tucholska, Kinga
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Informa Healthcare 01.06.2010; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Adult; Attention - physiology; Chronic sleep deficit; Electrooculography - methods; Female; Humans; Omission and commission errors; Post-lunch dip; Reaction Time - physiology; Saccadic eye movements; Sleep Deprivation - physiopathology; Sustained attention; Wakefulness - physiology
• ISSN: 0742-0528; 1525-6073
• DOI: 10.3109/07420528.2010.488981

Electrooculography (EOG) was used to explore performance differences in a sustained attention task during rested wakefulness (RW) and after 7 days of partial sleep deprivation (SD). The RW condition was based on obtaining regular sleep, and the SD condition involved sleep restriction of 3 h night for a week resulting in a total sleep debt of 21 h. The study used a counterbalanced design with a 2-wk gap between the conditions. Participants performed a sustained attention task for 45 min on four occasions: 10:00-11:00, 14:00-15:00, 18:00-19:00, and 22:00-23:00 h. The task required moving gaze and attention as fast as possible from a fixation point to a target. In each session, 120 congruent and 34 incongruent stimuli were presented, totaling 1232 observations participant. Correct responses plus errors of omission (lapses) and commission (false responses) were recorded, and the effect of time-of-day on sustained attention following SD was investigated. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) model showed that SD affected performance on a sustained attention task and manifested itself in a higher number of omission errors: congruent stimuli (F(1,64) = 13.3, p < .001) and incongruent stimuli (F(1,64) = 14.0, p < .001). Reaction times for saccadic eye movements did not differ significantly between experimental conditions or by time-of-day. Commission errors, however, exhibited a decreasing trend during the day. The visible prevalence of omissions in SD versus RW was observed during the mid-afternoon hours (the so-called post-lunch dip) for both congruent and incongruent stimuli (F(1,16) = 5.3, p = .04 and F(1,16) = 5.6, p = .03, respectively), and at 18:00 h for incongruent stimuli (F(1,13) = 5.7, p = .03). (Author correspondence: magda.fafrowicz@uj.edu.pl)