The effects of sleep deprivation on dissociable prototype learning systems

The cognitive neural underpinnings of prototype learning are becoming clear. Evidence points to 2 different neural systems, depending on the learning parameters. A/not-A (AN) prototype learning is mediated by posterior brain regions that are involved in early perceptual learning, whereas A/B (AB) is mediated by frontal and medial temporal lobe regions.

To investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on AN and AB prototype learning and to use established prototype models to provide insights into the cognitive-processing locus of sleep-deprivation deficits.

Participants performed an AN and an AB prototype learning task twice, separated by a 24-hour period, with or without sleep between testing sessions.

Eighteen West Point cadets participated in the sleep-deprivation group, and 17 West Point cadets participated in a control group.

Sleep deprivation led to an AN, but not an AB, performance deficit. Prototype model analyses indicated that the AN deficit was due to changes in attentional focus and a decrease in confidence that is reflected in an increased bias to respond non-A.

The findings suggest that AN, but not AB, prototype learning is affected by sleep deprivation. Prototype model analyses support the notion that the effect of sleep deprivation on AN is consistent with lapses in attentional focus that are more detrimental to AN than to AB. This finding adds to a growing body of work that suggests that different performance changes associated with sleep deprivation can be attributed to a common mechanism of changes in simple attention and vigilance.