Dynamic asynchrony in brain function and behavioral impairment during sleep deprivation: An fMRI study on individual...

Sleep deprivation (SD) has become a common social phenomenon. Previous neuroimaging research has investigated the underlying mechanisms of SD in terms of individual variability and dynamic alterations over multiple time points, separately. The present study aimed to integrate these aspects to explore the complex interplay between brain function and behavioral performance.

Thirty-six young normal participants underwent three sessions of magnetic resonance imaging and psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) after rested wakefulness (RW), at 04:00 (SD20) and at 08:00 (SD24). We investigated the dynamic changes of PVT performance and brain neuroimage using the functional connectivity density (FCD) and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis during SD. To examine the individual difference, participants were stratified into vulnerable/resilient subgroups based on PVT performance thresholds. Pearson correlation analyses were performed between ΔPVT and ΔFCD/ΔFC during the first (SD20-RW) and second (SD24-SD20) halves of the night, for each sub-group.

Significant relationship between the change of PVT and thalamic functional connectivity was identified at 04:00 in the vulnerable group, not in resilient group, and this association was disrupted from 04:00 to 08:00.

We demonstrate a temporal decoupling between thalamic connectivity degradation and PVT impairment.