The following is a summary of “Role of the Fronto-Parietal Network in Modulating Sustained Attention Under Sleep Deprivation: An fMRI Study,” published in the October 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Yao et al.
Sleep deprivation (SD) and cognitive performance are closely linked. Researchers performed a retrospective study using advanced imaging to examine the neural basis of sustained attention deficits under sleep deprivation.
The study involved 64 healthy, right-handed participants who underwent resting-state functional MRI scans before and after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. Advanced imaging techniques were used to investigate changes in spontaneous brain activity, particularly in the fractional Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations (fALFF) and their associations with performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT).
Pearson correlation analysis explored the connections between neurobiological changes and PVT behavioral outcomes. The study found a significant decrease in fALFF values in key regions of the fronto-parietal network(FPN) after SD, particularly in the frontal and parietal gyri. These changes were inversely correlated with PVT performance metrics. The baseline fALFF values in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) were identified as potent neurobiological markers, exhibiting high discriminatory power in detecting individual responses to the detrimental effects of SD on cognitive performance.
The study found that a key brain network regulates attention and executive function during sleep deprivation.
Source: frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1289300/abstract
