Reduced sleep time is associated with increases in frontal sleep-like activity and emotion regulation failures

• Published in: European psychiatry 2021-04, Vol.64 (S1), p.S170-S170
• Main Authors: Avvenuti, G., Bertelloni, D., Lettieri, G., Ricciardi, E., Cecchetti, L., Pietrini, P., Bernardi, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abstract; behavior; EEG; emotion regulation; Emotions; Oral Communications; Sleep
• ISSN: 0924-9338; 1778-3585
• DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.452

IntroductionEmotion self-regulation relies both on cognitive and behavioral strategies implemented to modulate the subjective experience and/or the behavioral expression of a given emotion.ObjectivesWhile it is known that a network encompassing fronto-cingulate and parietal brain areas is engaged during successful emotion regulation, the functional mechanisms underlying failures in emotion suppression are still unclear.MethodsWe analyzed facial-view video and high-density EEG recordings of nineteen healthy adult subjects (26±3yrs, 10F) during an emotion suppression (ES) and a free expression (FE) task performed on two consecutive days. An actigraph was worn for 7-days and used to determine sleep-time before each experiment. Changes in facial expression were identified and manually marked on the video recordings. Continuous hd-EEG recordings were preprocessed using standard approaches to reduce artifactual activity and source-modeled using sLORETA.ResultsChanges in facial expression during ES, but not FE, were preceded by local increases in sleep-like activity (1-4Hz) in in brain areas responsible for emotional suppression, including bilateral anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex, and in right middle/inferior frontal gyrus (p