Impact of total sleep deprivation on behavioural neural processing of emotionally expressive faces

Abstract

Sleep deprivation impacts subjective mood states, but very little research has examined the impact on processing emotional information. In the current study, we investigated the impact of total sleep deprivation on neural responses to emotional facial expressions as well as the accuracy and speed with which these faces were categorized. Forty-nine participants completed two tasks in which they were asked to categorize emotional facial expressions as Happy, Sad, Angry, or Fearful. They were shown the 'full' expression of the emotions in one task and more subtle expressions in a second task in which expressions were 'morphed' with neutral faces so that the intensity of emotion varied. It was expected that sleep deprivation would lead to greater reactivity (indexed by larger amplitude N170 event-related potentials), particularly for negative and more subtle facial expressions. In the full face task, sleep-deprived (SD) participants were significantly less accurate than controls (C) at identifying Sad faces and slower to identify all emotional expressions. P1 was smaller and N170 was larger for the SD compared to C group, but for all emotions, indicating generalized impairment in low-level visual processing. In the more difficult morphed face task, SD participants were less accurate than C participants for Sad faces; as well, the group difference in reaction time was greatest for Sad faces. For the SD group, N170 increased in amplitude with increasing perceptual difficulty for the Fearful and Angry faces, but decreased in amplitude with increasing difficulty for Sad faces. These data illustrate that sleep deprivation led to greater neural reactivity for the threat-related negative emotions as they became more subtle; however, there was a failure to engage these perceptual resources for the processing of Sad faces. Sleep loss preferentially impacted the processing of Sad faces; this has widespread implications for sleep-deprived groups.

Sleep Deprivation Impairs the Human Central and Peripheral Nervous System Discrimination of Social Threat

“…This same neural framework may additionally offer a holistic brain-body account for previously reported mismatch inaccuracies in emotional recognition associated with sleep deprivation (Cote et al, 2014;Maccari et al, 2014). Considering the importance of accurate threat/safety-signal interpretation in determining appropriate social behaviors (Oosterhof and Todorov, 2008), this model may further explain reported associations between reduced sleep time and increased peer-related problems in youth (Hoedlmoser et al, 2010), decreased interpersonal functioning in adults (Killgore et al, 2008), and antisocial interactions (Sadeh et al, 1995).…”

“…A lack of sleep significantly amplifies amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli (Yoo et al, 2007;Goldstein et al, 2013), whereas the presence of sleep, and specifically REM sleep, beneficially depotentiates amygdala reactivity in response to previous emotional experiences (van der Helm et al, 2011). Moreover, sleep deprivation impairs the basic ability to recognize emotional from nonemotional face stimuli (Pallesen et al, 2004;van der Helm et al, 2010;Cote et al, 2014;Maccari et al, 2014). Further, this altered behavior has been associated with nonspecific (and larger) event-related potentials in response to faces regardless of emotion (Cote et al, 2014).…”

“…Moreover, sleep deprivation impairs the basic ability to recognize emotional from nonemotional face stimuli (Pallesen et al, 2004;van der Helm et al, 2010;Cote et al, 2014;Maccari et al, 2014). Further, this altered behavior has been associated with nonspecific (and larger) event-related potentials in response to faces regardless of emotion (Cote et al, 2014).…”

The combined effect of sleep and time of day on emotion decoding from dynamic visual cues in older adults

“…A possible explanation for such a finding, which could be generalized to anxiety as well, is that decoding difficulties may be associated with the relatively low levels of physiological arousal that the specific emotions elicit 9,54. On the basis of the extant literature, it seems that following sleep loss, broader brain areas are engaged in order to accurately identify high-arousal emotional cues.…”

“…On the basis of the extant literature, it seems that following sleep loss, broader brain areas are engaged in order to accurately identify high-arousal emotional cues. Nevertheless, such compensation is not achieved for emotional cues eliciting lower arousal, perhaps because they are not experienced by an organism as crucial for survival and therefore, deserving to invest cognitive resources, when these are limited by a challenge such as sleep loss 9,54. In addition to neurocognitive and evolutionary perspectives, according to socioemotional approaches, sadness, anxiety, and surprise can be considered as highly self-relevant emotions that are characterized by the “unpleasant” dimensions of negative valence or/and high unpredictability.…”