Psychomotor vigilance task performance during and following chronic sleep restriction in rats.

ABSTRACT:

Study objectives

Chronic sleep restriction (CSR) impairs sustained attention in humans, as commonly assessed with the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). To further investigate the mechanisms underlying performance deficits during CSR, we examined the effect of CSR on performance on a rat version of PVT (rPVT).

Design

Adult male rats were trained on a rPVT that required them to press a bar when they detected irregularly presented, brief light stimuli, and were then tested during CSR. CSR consisted of 100 or 148 h of continuous cycles of 3-h sleep deprivation (using slowly rotating wheels) alternating with a 1-h sleep opportunity (3/1 protocol).

Measurements and results

After 28 h of CSR, the latency of correct responses and the percentages of lapses and omissions increa

SUBMITTER: Deurveilher S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4355891 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature