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Updated: Apr 19, 2026
The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test rPVT: A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice
Published on: December 29, 2016
Sleep deprivation and time-on-task performance decrement in the rat psychomotor vigilance task
Marcella Oonk1, Christopher J Davis1, James M Krueger1
1Sleep and Performance Research Center and College of Medical Sciences, Washington State University, Spokane, WA.
Study Objectives:
The rat psychomotor vigilance task (rPVT) was developed as a rodent analog of the human psychomotor vigilance task (hPVT). We examined whether rPVT performance displays time-on-task effects similar to those observed on the hPVT.
Design:
The rPVT requires rats to respond to a randomly presented light stimulus to obtain a water reward. Rats were water deprived for 22 h prior to each 30-min rPVT session to motivate performance. We analyzed rPVT performance over time on task and as a function of the response-stimulus interval, at baseline and after sleep deprivation.
Setting:
The study was conducted in an academic research vivarium.
Participants:
Male Long-Evans rats were trained to respond to a 0.5 sec stimulus light within 3 sec of stimulus onset. Complete data were available for n = 20 rats.
Interventions:
Rats performed the rPVT for 30 min at baseline and after 24 h total sleep deprivation by gentle handling.
Measurements And Results:
Compared to baseline, sleep deprived rats displayed increased performance lapses and premature responses, similar to hPVT lapses of attention and false starts. However, in contrast to hPVT performance, the time-on-task performance decrement was not significantly enhanced by sleep deprivation. Moreover, following sleep deprivation, rPVT response times were not consistently increased after short response-stimulus intervals.
Conclusions:
The rPVT manifests similarities to the hPVT in global performance outcomes, but not in post-sleep deprivation effects of time on task and response-stimulus interval.
