Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
Sleep and Performance Research Center, Washington State University, Spokane, WA, USA.
Psychol Res. 2020 Mar;84(2):454-467. doi: 10.1007/s00426-018-1054-z. Epub 2018 Jul 13.
The ability to retain an action plan to execute another is necessary for most complex, goal-directed behavior. Research shows that executing an action plan to an interrupting event can be delayed when it partly overlaps (vs. does not overlap) with the retained action plan. This phenomenon is known as partial repetition costs (PRCs). PRCs reflect proactive interference, which may be resolved by inhibitory, executive control processes. We investigated whether these inhibitory processes are compromised due to one night of sleep deprivation. Participants were randomized to a sleep-deprived group or a well-rested control group. All participants performed an action planning task at baseline after a full night of sleep, and again either after a night of sleep deprivation (sleep-deprived group) or a full night of sleep (control group). In this task, two visual events occurred in a sequence. Participants retained an action plan to the first event in working memory while executing a speeded action to the second (interrupting) event; afterwards, they executed the action to the first event. The two action plans either partly overlapped (required the same hand) or did not (required different hands). Results showed slower responses to the interrupting event during sleep deprivation compared to baseline and the control group. However, the magnitude of the PRCs was no different during sleep deprivation compared to baseline and the control group. Thus, one night of sleep deprivation slowed global responses to the interruption, but inhibitory processes involved in reducing proactive interference while responding to an interrupting event were not compromised. These findings are consistent with other studies that show sleep deprivation degrades global task performance, but does not necessarily degrade performance on isolated, executive control components of cognition. The possibility that our findings involve local as opposed to central inhibition is also discussed.
保留执行另一个计划的能力对于大多数复杂的、有目标导向的行为是必要的。研究表明，当执行计划的动作与保留的计划部分重叠（而不是不重叠）时，它可以延迟对中断事件的执行。这种现象被称为部分重复成本（PRC）。PRC 反映了前摄干扰，这可能通过抑制、执行控制过程来解决。我们研究了由于一夜睡眠剥夺是否会损害这些抑制过程。参与者被随机分配到睡眠剥夺组或休息良好的对照组。所有参与者在一夜完整的睡眠后，在基线时进行了一次动作规划任务，然后要么在一夜睡眠剥夺后（睡眠剥夺组），要么在一夜完整的睡眠后（对照组）再次进行。在这个任务中，两个视觉事件按顺序发生。参与者在工作记忆中保留了对第一个事件的动作计划，同时对第二个（中断）事件执行快速动作；之后，他们执行对第一个事件的动作。这两个动作计划要么部分重叠（需要同一只手），要么不重叠（需要不同的手）。结果显示，与基线和对照组相比，睡眠剥夺期间对中断事件的反应较慢。然而，与基线和对照组相比，睡眠剥夺期间 PRC 的幅度没有不同。因此，一夜睡眠剥夺会减缓对中断的整体反应，但在响应中断事件时减少前摄干扰所涉及的抑制过程并未受损。这些发现与其他研究一致，表明睡眠剥夺会降低整体任务表现，但不一定会降低认知的孤立、执行控制成分的表现。还讨论了我们的发现可能涉及局部而不是中央抑制的可能性。
