Fighting Sleep at Night: Brain Correlates and Vulnerability to Sleep Loss
Micheline Maire PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCarolin Franziska Reichert PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorVirginie Gabel PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorAntoine U. Viola PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorChristophe Phillips PhD
Cyclotron Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorJulia Krebs MD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorKlaus Scheffler PhD
MRC-Department, MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorMarkus Klarhöfer PhD
Department of Medical Radiology, MR-Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorWerner Strobel MD
Respiratory Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Christian Cajochen PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Equal contribution.
Address correspondence to Prof Dr Christian Cajochen, Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Wilhelm Klein-Strasse 27, 4012 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorChristina Schmidt PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Equal contribution.
Search for more papers by this authorMicheline Maire PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCarolin Franziska Reichert PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorVirginie Gabel PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorAntoine U. Viola PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorChristophe Phillips PhD
Cyclotron Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorJulia Krebs MD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorKlaus Scheffler PhD
MRC-Department, MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorMarkus Klarhöfer PhD
Department of Medical Radiology, MR-Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorWerner Strobel MD
Respiratory Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Christian Cajochen PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Equal contribution.
Address correspondence to Prof Dr Christian Cajochen, Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Wilhelm Klein-Strasse 27, 4012 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorChristina Schmidt PhD
Center for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Equal contribution.
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Objective
Even though wakefulness at night leads to profound performance deterioration and is regularly experienced by shift workers, its cerebral correlates remain virtually unexplored.
Methods
We assessed brain activity in young healthy adults during a vigilant attention task under high and low sleep pressure during night-time, coinciding with strongest circadian sleep drive. We examined sleep-loss–related attentional vulnerability by considering a PERIOD3 polymorphism presumably impacting on sleep homeostasis.
Results
Our results link higher sleep-loss–related attentional vulnerability to cortical and subcortical deactivation patterns during slow reaction times (i.e., suboptimal vigilant attention). Concomitantly, thalamic regions were progressively less recruited with time-on-task and functionally less connected to task-related and arousal-promoting brain regions in those volunteers showing higher attentional instability in their behavior. The data further suggest that the latter is linked to shifts into a task-inactive default-mode network in between task-relevant stimulus occurrence.
Interpretation
We provide a multifaceted view on cerebral correlates of sleep loss at night and propose that genetic predisposition entails differential cerebral coping mechanisms, potentially compromising adequate performance during night work. Ann Neurol 2015;78:235–247
Supporting Information
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.
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Supplementary Information |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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