The impact of sleep loss on sustained and transient attention: an EEG study

Shenfield, Lucienne; Beanland, Vanessa; Filtness, Ashleigh; Apthorp, Deborah · 2020 · Crossref

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8960

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Summary

This study investigates whether sleep loss differentially affects sustained and transient attention, challenging the assumption that all attentional processes are equally impaired by sleep deprivation. The research was motivated by the high societal costs of sleep loss and the lack of empirical evidence distinguishing the effects of partial sleep restriction on specific attentional domains. While sustained attention (vigilance) is known to be highly susceptible to sleep loss, less is known about transient attention, which involves brief, intense focus. The researchers conducted two studies using a repeated-measures within-subjects design. Participants were tested under two conditions: normal sleep (7–8 hours) and partial sleep restriction (5 hours). Study 1 assessed behavioral performance in 24 participants using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) for sustained attention and the Attentional Blink (AB) paradigm for transient attention. Study 2 replicated the behavioral tasks with 24 new participants and added electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings to examine neural underpinnings. EEG data were analyzed during a brief eyes-closed resting state prior to the tasks, focusing on frequency bands including delta, theta, and alpha oscillations. Sleep compliance was verified via sleep diaries and actigraphy devices. Study 1 found that sleep restriction significantly impaired sustained attention, evidenced by slower reaction times and increased lapses on the PVT. However, performance on the transient attention task (AB) remained unaffected by sleep restriction, showing no significant difference in accuracy between conditions. Study 2 replicated these behavioral findings, confirming that AB performance was robust to sleep loss. Crucially, EEG analysis revealed significant neural changes despite the preserved behavioral performance. Sleep restriction led to a significant reduction in resting-state alpha oscillations, particularly in the right central hemisphere. Additionally, changes in individual alpha and delta power were correlated with increased subjective sleepiness and poorer PVT performance. The findings indicate that sustained and transient attention are not uniformly affected by sleep loss. While sustained attention deteriorates significantly, transient attention remains behaviorally intact even when underlying neural activity, specifically alpha oscillations, is altered. This suggests that transient attention may rely on different neural mechanisms or possess greater resilience to partial sleep restriction than sustained attention. The study highlights the importance of distinguishing between attentional subtypes in sleep research and demonstrates that behavioral stability does not necessarily imply neural stability, as significant EEG changes occurred without corresponding behavioral deficits in transient attention tasks.

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Topics

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• sleep deprivation
• drowsiness
• drowsiness detection algorithms
• vigilance
• sustained attention vigilance
• microsleep

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data