UR2NF-Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, at CRCN-Centre for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences and UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Brugmann University Hospital, Sleep Laboratory & Unit for Chronobiology U78, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 22;19(23):15485. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315485.
Sleep continuity and efficacy are essential for optimal cognitive functions. How sleep fragmentation (SF) impairs cognitive functioning, and especially cognitive fatigue (CF), remains elusive. We investigated the impact of induced SF on CF through the TloadDback task, measuring interindividual variability in working memory capacity. Sixteen participants underwent an adaptation polysomnography night and three consecutive nights, once in a SF condition induced by non-awakening auditory stimulations, once under restorative sleep (RS) condition, counterbalanced within-subject. In both conditions, participants were administered memory, vigilance, inhibition and verbal fluency testing, and for CF the TloadDback, as well as sleep questionnaires and fatigue and sleepiness visual analog scales were administered. Subjective fatigue increased and sleep architecture was altered after SF (reduced sleep efficiency, percentage of N3 and REM, number of NREM and REM phases) despite similar total sleep time. At the behavioral level, only inhibition deteriorated after SF, and CF similarly evolved in RS and SF conditions. In line with prior research, we show that SF disrupts sleep architecture and exerts a deleterious impact on subjective fatigue and inhibition. However, young healthy participants appear able to compensate for CF induced by three consecutive SF nights. Further studies should investigate SF effects in extended and/or pathological disruption settings.
睡眠连续性和效果对于最佳认知功能至关重要。睡眠碎片化(SF)如何损害认知功能,特别是认知疲劳(CF),仍然难以捉摸。我们通过 TloadDback 任务研究了诱导 SF 对 CF 的影响,该任务测量了工作记忆容量的个体间可变性。16 名参与者接受了适应多导睡眠图夜间和三个连续夜间的测试,一次在非唤醒听觉刺激诱导的 SF 条件下,一次在恢复性睡眠(RS)条件下,在个体内进行平衡。在这两种情况下,参与者都接受了记忆、警觉性、抑制和言语流畅性测试,以及 CF 的 TloadDback 测试,以及睡眠问卷和疲劳和困倦视觉模拟量表。尽管总睡眠时间相似,但 SF 后主观疲劳增加,睡眠结构改变(睡眠效率降低,N3 和 REM 的百分比降低,NREM 和 REM 阶段的数量减少)。在行为水平上,只有抑制在 SF 后恶化,并且在 RS 和 SF 条件下 CF 同样发展。与先前的研究一致,我们表明 SF 会破坏睡眠结构,并对主观疲劳和抑制产生有害影响。然而,年轻健康的参与者似乎能够补偿连续三个 SF 夜引起的 CF。进一步的研究应在扩展和/或病理性破坏环境中研究 SF 的影响。