Effects of experimental sleep deprivation on aggressive, sexual and maternal behaviour in animals: a systematic review protocol

Abstract

ObjectiveBecause of the relevance for the research on sleep deprivation and human behaviour, many preclinical studies have been conducted on aggressive, sexual and maternal behaviours in this field. Considering the available data and the complexity of the factors involved, the most appropriate way to summarise the effects of sleep deprivation on these behaviours is through systematic reviews and meta-analyses. This article describes the protocol for three independent systematic reviews and meta-analyses, evaluating the effects of sleep deprivation on aggressive, sexual and maternal behaviours in animals.Search strategyA bibliographic search will be performed in four databases: Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and Psychinfo, searching for three domains: sleep deprivation (as the intervention), animals (as the population) and behaviour (as the outcome).Screening and annotationTitles and abstracts will first be screened, followed by analysis of the full text and data extraction.Data management and reportingSYstematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation ’s risk of bias tool will be used to evaluate risk of bias; visual analysis of funnel plots, Egger’s regression and trim-and-fill will be employed to evaluate publication bias. Effect sizes will be calculated from the articles by either direct or standardised mean difference, depending on the nature of the data. Overall estimates will then be calculated using a random effects model. Heterogeneity will be assessed using both I2 index and Cochran’s Q test. These meta-analyses should be useful to summarise the available data on the relationship between sleep deprivation and behaviour, providing a solid background for future behavioural sleep deprivation experiments, improving their validity.

Measurement of corticosterone in mice: a protocol for a mapping review

“…It is becoming more common to publish review protocols for animal studies (refer to Pires et al 31 as an example). Protocols are published to benefit from peer review to optimise the review process, to make comprehensive search strings available to other reviewers and to share information on the ongoing effort with the scientific community before publication of the results.…”

Effects of sleep deprivation on maternal behaviour in animal models: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Five different online databases (Scopus, Pubmed, Web of Science – complete collection, Lilacs and Psychinfo) were searched on August 2019 to identify experimental studies related to maternal behaviour and sleep deprivation in animal models. The bibliographic search was conducted in accordance to our previously published protocol (Pires et al., 2018). It encompasses three domains: sleep deprivation during pregnancy (as intervention), maternal behaviour (as outcome), and animals (as population).…”

Development of a Systematic Review Protocol and a Scoping Review of Ultrasound-Induced Immune Effects in Peripheral Tumors

“…The title/abstract screening was performed by three reviewers using Rayyan [25]. Additionally, 20 publications from recent review articles [8,9,13] were added to the full-text screening. These 20 publications were also identified by our preliminary search strategy but were initially not added to the title/abstract screening as their date of publishing was not included in the selected subset.…”

“…In addition, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) recommends the registration of protocols for systematic reviews in publicly available databases [6], similar to the mandatory registration of clinical trials in public registries. An additional publication of protocols in peer-reviewed journals is also common [7][8][9][10]. Protocol registration and publication aim to increase the transparency of methods [4], reduce the risk of subsequent protocol adjustment to results (e.g., requesting Fig.…”