Altered brain activity related to inhibitory processing in youth with insomnia

Abstract

Insomnia, presented as problems with initiating or maintaining sleep, or early morning awakening, affects about 33.7% to up to 69% of the youth population, depending on the defining criteria and age of the study samples (Blank et al., 2015;Chung, Kan, & Yeung, 2014;Sing & Wong, 2011). Insomnia in youth entails an increased risk of developing a wide range of negative outcomes, including interpersonal problems, poor perceived physical health, somatic health problems, as well as depressive and anxiety symptoms (Blank et al., 2015). Meanwhile, youth is a developmental period that is especially vulnerable to impulsivity and poor impulse control due to the immature development of the forebrain circuits during adolescence (Geier & Luna, 2009). In particular, insomnia in youth has been linked to the behavioral problems associated with impaired inhibitory control, such as substance abuse, self-harm and suicidal risk (Hysing,

The impacts of intra‐individual daily sleep variability on daytime functioning and sleep architecture in healthy young adults: An experimental study

“…It was possible that mild sleep variability might not be sufficient to induce changes in cognitive abilities at a behavioural level. In this regard, a recent study showed that youth with insomnia had a comparable performance on the cued go/no-go task as compared with healthy sleepers, but showed altered brain activities as measured by event-related potential, suggesting impaired inhibitory control (Ling et al, 2021). Future studies with neuroimaging techniques are needed to further examine possible underlying changes in brain activity in response to sleep variability.…”

Altered neurophysiological responses during empathy for pain in insomnia: evidence from an EEG study in non-clinical samples

“…N2 is localized in the frontal, central, and temporal regions [ 9 ], and the amplitude of N2 represents the degree of emotional sharing of empathy for others’ pain [ 20 ]. Additionally, Ling et al [ 21 ] discovered reduced N2 amplitudes in insomniacs during the Go/No-go task, suggesting potential deficits in attentional and inhibitory control. LPC, localized in the posterior parietal lobe, represents a stage of cognitive processing and evaluation of others’ pain like that of P3 [ 20 ].…”

Altered electrophysiology mechanism related to inhibitory control in adults with insomnia

“…These suggest the impairment of motor inhibition among individuals with insomnia. A recent study (14) combined a go/no-go task and EEG to measure adolescents with insomnia. The results showed that adolescents with insomnia showed altered brain activity during inhibitory control.…”