Impaired Coupling of the Brain’s Default Network During Sleep Deprivation: A Resting-State EEG Study

Abstract

Introduction

Sleep deprivation (SD) has a negative influence on mood and emotion processing, and previous studies have elucidated the impaired coupling within the default network (DN) after SD. However, the dynamic characteristic with high temporal precision was rarely investigated in the DN after SD.

Methods

Here, the resting-state EEG after nocturnal sleep (NS) and SD was collected from 31 participants. The cortical electrical activities of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC) were reconstructed applying the eLORETA, and the functional connectivity (FC) of PCC-aMPFC was calculated using the power envelope connectivity (PEC).

Results

Compared with NS, the power spectrums of the PCC and the FC of PCC-aMPFC were significantly reduced in the α band after SD. Interestingly, the impaired PCC-aMPFC integration was positively correlated with the decreased positive affect, implying that the DN plays a critical role in the subjective mood state. Our moderation analysis further revealed that the intensity of the DN posterior–anterior interaction moderated sleep loss and positive affect.

Discussion

Overall, the results reveal the strong relationship between the uncoupling of DN and the feeling down of mood. Our research may contribute towards a better understanding of the mood and cognition processing after sleep loss.

Keywords:

• resting-state EEG
• sleep deprivation
• α band
• default network
• affective state

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Xinyuan Chen, Ling He, Zhiqi Lu, and Teng Li for their help in data analyses strategy and data collection. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (grant number 31971028) and Major Project of Medicine Science and Technology of PLA (AWS17J012).

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.