The Unrested Resting Brain: Sleep Deprivation Alters Activity within the Default-mode Network

Abstract

The sleep-deprived brain has principally been characterized by examining dysfunction during cognitive-task performance. However, far less attention has been afforded the possibility that sleep deprivation may be as, if not more, accurately characterized on the basis of abnormal resting-state brain activity. Here we report that one night of sleep deprivation significantly disrupts the canonical signature of task-related deactivation, resulting in a double dissociation within anterior as well as posterior midline regions of the default network. Indeed, deactivation within these regions alone discriminated sleep-deprived from sleep-control subjects with a 93% degree of sensitivity and 92% specificity. In addition, the relative balance of deactivation within these default nodes significantly correlated with the amount of prior sleep in the control group (and not extended time awake in the deprivation group). Therefore, the stability and balance of task-related deactivation in key defaultmode regions may be dependent on prior sleep, such that a lack thereof disrupts this signature pattern of brain activity; findings that may offer explanatory insights into conditions associated with sleep loss at both a clinical as well as societal level.

Sleep deprivation increases dorsal nexus connectivity to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in humans

“…using a seed region identical to a previous work (center of this region: x = −8, y = −49, z = 28) (23). It is important to note that, consistent with previous studies (22,24), sleep deprivation reduced functional connectivity of the PCC with the ACC (BA 32; coordinates: +5, +43, +3; z score = 3.7173, P = 0.000201; cluster size = 359 mm 3 ) (Fig. 2).…”

“…This relationship of depression symptom relief with a metabolic decrease in inferior and orbital frontal areas and an increase in the DLPFC was recently partly confirmed with a higher resolution MRI scanner (6). In addition, patients with bipolar depression who responded to sleep deprivation had decreased activity in the ACC (BA 32,24) and an increased activity in the DLPFC (BA 10, 46) in reaction to negative visual stimuli during an fMRI task (comparing pretreatment to posttreatment) (7). Increased prefrontal responsivity to cognitive demands after sleep deprivation was also observed in healthy subjects (44).…”

Decreased Connectivity between the Thalamus and the Neocortex during Human Nonrapid Eye Movement Sleep

“…32 It would also be important to measure thalamocortical connectivity during rested wakefulness and sleep deprived wakefulness because corticocortical connectivity changes during such a manipulation. 33 For the current study, given most of the epochs that were chosen for the wake condition occurred after the first slow wave sleep bout, the differences in connectivity that we observed may be specific to differences between sleep and postsleep wakefulness.…”

Advancing a Biopsychosocial and Contextual Model of Sleep in Adolescence: A Review and Introduction to the Special Issue

“…It is hypothesized that the attentional lapses characteristic of ADHD (e.g., reaction time variability; Tamm et al 2012) may be attributable to inadequate or decreased suppression of the default mode network during cognitive tasks (Broyd et al 2009;Castellanos et al 2005). Of note, altered coherence in the default mode network has been found in individuals with ADHD (Castellanos et al 2008;Fair et al 2010) and in sleep deprivation studies with non-ADHD youth (De Havas et al 2012;Gujar et al 2010), although we are unaware of any study that has integrated these two research areas. Does altered coherence in the default mode network contribute to the increased rates of sleep problems in samples of youth with ADHD?…”