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Review
. 2007 Apr;64(7-8):934-46.
doi: 10.1007/s00018-007-6457-8.

Effects of sleep deprivation on neural functioning: an integrative review

T W Boonstra  1 , J F Stins, A Daffertshofer, P J Beek
Affiliations
Review

Effects of sleep deprivation on neural functioning: an integrative review

T W Boonstra et al. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2007 Apr.

Abstract

Sleep deprivation has a broad variety of effects on human performance and neural functioning that manifest themselves at different levels of description. On a macroscopic level, sleep deprivation mainly affects executive functions, especially in novel tasks. Macroscopic and mesoscopic effects of sleep deprivation on brain activity include reduced cortical responsiveness to incoming stimuli, reflecting reduced attention. On a microscopic level, sleep deprivation is associated with increased levels of adenosine, a neuromodulator that has a general inhibitory effect on neural activity. The inhibition of cholinergic nuclei appears particularly relevant, as the associated decrease in cortical acetylcholine seems to cause effects of sleep deprivation on macroscopic brain activity. In general, however, the relationships between the neural effects of sleep deprivation across observation scales are poorly understood and uncovering these relationships should be a primary target in future research.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reduction of the auditory- (upper panel) and motor-related (lower panel) response after SD. Left: spatial distribution of both responses showing event-related activity above either bilateral auditory areas or the left sensorimotor area (head is viewed from above using a Mercator-mapping; nose is upwards). Middle: the strength of event-related components in the control (blue) and sleep-deprived (red) condition. Right: the corresponding event-related fields [see ref. , for more details].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of the lateral part (Brodmann’s areas 45 and 46 and the lateral parts of areas 9 to 12) and the ventromedial part of the PFC (the medial parts of areas 10 and 11). The dorsolateral PFC is engaged in executive functions such as working memory, whereas the ventromedial PFC is part of the limbic system involved in decision making and social cognition [42]. Figure adopted from Gazzaniga et al. [55].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Simplified diagram of the ascending activating system in the human brain. Adopted from http://web.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/psy340/lectures/; see text for further details.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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