Inhibitory motor control in apneic and insomniac patients: a stop task study

Abstract

Summary The aim of this study was to assess with a stop task the inhibitory motor control efficiency – a major component of executive control functions – in patients suffering from sleep disorders. Twenty‐two patients with untreated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) (mean age 46 ± 9 years; mean apnea–hypopnea index, AHI = 30 ± 20) and 13 patients with psychophysiological insomnia (mean age 47 ± 12 years) were compared with individually matched healthy controls. Sleep disturbances in the patient populations were clinically and polysomnographically diagnosed. The stop task has a frequent visual ‘Go’ stimulus to set up a response tendency and a less frequent auditory ‘Stop’ signal to withhold the planned or prepotent response. The stop signal reaction time (SSRT) reflects the time to internally suppress the ongoing response. SSRT was slower for the apneic patients than for their respective controls (248 ± 107 versus 171 ± 115 ms, anova, P < 0.05) but not for the insomniac patients compared with their controls (235 ± 112 versus 194 ± 109 ms, NS). Moreover, in apneic patients, slower SSRT was associated with lower nocturnal oxygen saturation (r = −0.477, P < 0.05). By contrast, neither apneics nor insomniacs differed from their matched controls for reaction times on Go trials. To conclude, unlike insomniacs, OSAS patients present an impaired inhibitory motor control, an executive function which is required in many common everyday life situations. Inhibitory motor control relies on the integrity of the inferior prefrontal cortex, which could be affected by nocturnal oxyhemoglobin desaturation in apneic patients.

Cognitive performance and cardiovascular markers of hyperarousal in primary insomnia

“…To our knowledge, only Sagaspe et al (2007) exploited the Stop Signal paradigm with an insomnia population, finding slower SSRT in insomniacs compared to controls, but at a non significant level. Our evidence would support the notion that in insomniacs simple reaction times are relatively conserved, whereas consistent with previous data, they perform worse than good sleepers in complex reaction time tasks (Altena et al, 2008b;Schutte et al, 2006).…”

“…To our knowledge, only one study (Sagaspe et al, 2007) has applied Stop Signal paradigm to the study of insomnia. Specifically, Sagaspe et al (2007) investigated cognitive performance by using this task in patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and insomnia, and compared the patient groups to good sleepers. They found poorer performance in the OSAS group compared to controls, but failed in finding significant differences between insomniacs and healthy controls.…”

Influence of Age, Circadian and Homeostatic Processes on Inhibitory Motor Control: A Go/Nogo Task Study

“…The effect of sleepiness on motor inhibition has not been extensively studied. Nevertheless, individuals seem to experience difficulty in withholding an inappropriate response (i.e., inhibition failure) after total sleep deprivation [42], [43], when having poor sleep [44] or when suffering from an obstructive sleep apnea syndrome [45], [46]. To better understand the influence of sleep/wake regulation that contributes to human executive control is a key challenge for cognitive neurosciences.…”

The Impairment and Brain Mechanism on Inhibitory Control Function of Insomnia Disorder

“…)。但部分研究并未发现失眠患者在执行功能上的受损 (Orff, Drummond, Nowakowski, Perlis, 2007;Shekleton et al, 2010;Ferreira & de Almondes, 2014)， 这和失眠患者存在前额叶皮层 结构和功能改变的神经成像结果不符 (Joo et al, 2013;Spiegelhalder, Regen, Baglioni, Riemann, Winkelman, 2013;Nofzinger et al, 2004)，因为前额叶是参与执行功能、抑制控制的关键脑区 (Smith & Jonides, 1999;Miller & Cohen, 2001;Kane & Engle, 2002 (Logan & Cowan, 1984)，根据意识状 态可以分为自动抑制和有意抑制 (Nigg, 2000)。但多数研究者将抑制控制分为冲突抑制和反应抑制 (Booth et al, 2004;Aron, Robbins, & Poldrack, 2004;Brydges et al, 2012;Diamond, 2013) (Lundh, Froding, Gyllenhammar, Broman, & Hetta, 1997;Taylor, Espie, & White, 2003;MacMahon et al, 2006;Marchetti et al, 2006;Spiegelhalder, Espie, Nissen, & Riemann, 2008;Woods et al 2009;Spiegelhalder et al, 2010;Baglioni et al, 2010;Barclay & Ellis, 2013;Jansson-Fröjmark et al, 2013)；仅有两篇研究探讨反应抑制能力，但结果存在分歧 (Sagaspe, Philip, & Schwartz, 2007;Covassin et al, 2011) Figure 1. The simplified model contrast between brain areas and its connectivity in insomnia disorder and healthy good sleepers when performing inhibitory control tasks (Brain regions referred to Depue, Orr et al 2015).…”