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Effects of 24-hour and 36-hour sleep deprivation on smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.

Fransson, Per-Anders LU orcid ; Patel, Mitesh LU ; Magnusson, Måns LU orcid ; Berg, Sören LU ; Almbladh, P and Gomez, S (2008) In Journal of Vestibular Research 18(4). p.209-222
Abstract
Sleep restrictions and sleep deprivation have become common in modern society, as many people report daily sleep below the recommended 8 hours per night. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on oculomotor performance by recording smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements after 24 and 36 hours of sleep deprivation. Another objective was to determine whether detected changes in oculomotor performance followed fluctuations according to a circadian rhythm and/or subjective Visuo-Analogue sleepiness Scale scores. Oculomotor responses were recorded from 18 subjects using electronystagmography, and comprised measurements of accuracy (i.e., the percentage of time the eye movement velocity was within the target velocity... (More)
Sleep restrictions and sleep deprivation have become common in modern society, as many people report daily sleep below the recommended 8 hours per night. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on oculomotor performance by recording smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements after 24 and 36 hours of sleep deprivation. Another objective was to determine whether detected changes in oculomotor performance followed fluctuations according to a circadian rhythm and/or subjective Visuo-Analogue sleepiness Scale scores. Oculomotor responses were recorded from 18 subjects using electronystagmography, and comprised measurements of accuracy (i.e., the percentage of time the eye movement velocity was within the target velocity boundaries), velocity and latency. Continuous EEG recordings were used to validate that subjects had remained awake throughout the 36-hour period. Our findings showed that sleep deprivation deteriorated smooth pursuit gain, smooth pursuit accuracy and saccade velocity. Additionally, the ratio between saccade velocity and saccade amplitude was significantly decreased by sleep deprivation. However, as the length of sleep deprivation increased, only smooth pursuit gain deteriorated further, whereas there were signs of improvement in smooth pursuit accuracy measurements. The latter observation suggests that smooth pursuit accuracy might be affected by the circadian rhythm of alertness. Surprisingly, high subjective scores of sleepiness correlated in most cases with better saccade performance, especially after 36 hours of sleep deprivation, suggesting that awareness of sleepiness might make subjects perform better during saccade assessments. To conclude, oculomotor function clearly decreased after sleep deprivation, but the performance deteriorations were complex and not necessarily correlated with subjectively felt sleepiness. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Vestibular Research
volume
18
issue
4
pages
209 - 222
publisher
IOS Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000263904200004
  • pmid:19208965
  • scopus:63049117262
ISSN
1878-6464
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0ec64798-22fd-4956-858d-db2a8f0001c7 (old id 1302688)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19208965?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:38:24
date last changed
2024-01-12 16:19:33
@article{0ec64798-22fd-4956-858d-db2a8f0001c7,
  abstract     = {{Sleep restrictions and sleep deprivation have become common in modern society, as many people report daily sleep below the recommended 8 hours per night. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on oculomotor performance by recording smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements after 24 and 36 hours of sleep deprivation. Another objective was to determine whether detected changes in oculomotor performance followed fluctuations according to a circadian rhythm and/or subjective Visuo-Analogue sleepiness Scale scores. Oculomotor responses were recorded from 18 subjects using electronystagmography, and comprised measurements of accuracy (i.e., the percentage of time the eye movement velocity was within the target velocity boundaries), velocity and latency. Continuous EEG recordings were used to validate that subjects had remained awake throughout the 36-hour period. Our findings showed that sleep deprivation deteriorated smooth pursuit gain, smooth pursuit accuracy and saccade velocity. Additionally, the ratio between saccade velocity and saccade amplitude was significantly decreased by sleep deprivation. However, as the length of sleep deprivation increased, only smooth pursuit gain deteriorated further, whereas there were signs of improvement in smooth pursuit accuracy measurements. The latter observation suggests that smooth pursuit accuracy might be affected by the circadian rhythm of alertness. Surprisingly, high subjective scores of sleepiness correlated in most cases with better saccade performance, especially after 36 hours of sleep deprivation, suggesting that awareness of sleepiness might make subjects perform better during saccade assessments. To conclude, oculomotor function clearly decreased after sleep deprivation, but the performance deteriorations were complex and not necessarily correlated with subjectively felt sleepiness.}},
  author       = {{Fransson, Per-Anders and Patel, Mitesh and Magnusson, Måns and Berg, Sören and Almbladh, P and Gomez, S}},
  issn         = {{1878-6464}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{209--222}},
  publisher    = {{IOS Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Vestibular Research}},
  title        = {{Effects of 24-hour and 36-hour sleep deprivation on smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5377977/1389071.pdf}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}