The Impact of Moderate Sleep Loss on Neurophysiologic Signals during Working-Memory Task Performance

Moderate sleep loss compromises the function of neural circuits critical to subsecond attention allocation during working-memory tasks, even when an effort is made to maintain wakefulness and performance. Multivariate analyses indicate that combinations of working-memory-related behavior and neurophysiologic measures can be sensitive enough to permit reliable detection of such effects of sleep loss in individuals. Similar methods might prove useful for assessment of functional alertness in patients with sleep disorders.