Speed/accuracy trade-off in the effects of acute total sleep deprivation on a sustained attention and response inhibition task

ABSTRACT

Total sleep deprivation (TSD) is known to impair sustained attention. However, previously reported effects of TSD on response inhibition are mixed. We administered a “stop-signal” variation of the psychomotor vigilance test, which included 25% of trials requiring withholding of a response to assess response inhibition alongside sustained attention. Participants completed the task at baseline and after 34.5 h of wakefulness. Accuracy was not reduced during TSD. However, response times were significantly slower. A speed/accuracy trade-off allowed participants to effectively withhold responses on inhibition trials and conferred resilience of inhibitory control during TSD under conditions of relatively low time pressure.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive performance
• vigilant attention
• decision monitoring
• sleep loss
• interference

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the staff at the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University for helping to conduct this experiment. This research was supported by Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jazz Pharmaceuticals.