Sleep deprivation alters pupillary reactivity to emotional stimuli in healthy young adults

The aim of this pilot study was to quantify the impact of sleep deprivation on psychophysiological reactivity to emotional stimuli. Following an adaptation night of sleep in the lab, healthy young adults were randomly assigned to either one night of total sleep deprivation or to a normal sleep contr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological psychology 2009-03, Vol.80 (3), p.300-305
Main Authors: Franzen, Peter L., Buysse, Daniel J., Dahl, Ronald E., Thompson, Wesley, Siegle, Greg J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect
Analysis of Variance
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes
Emotional reactivity
Emotions - physiology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Neurology
Photic Stimulation
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Pupil dilation
Reaction Time - physiology
Reflex, Pupillary - physiology
Sleep deprivation
Sleep Deprivation - physiopathology
Visual Perception
Young Adult
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Summary:The aim of this pilot study was to quantify the impact of sleep deprivation on psychophysiological reactivity to emotional stimuli. Following an adaptation night of sleep in the lab, healthy young adults were randomly assigned to either one night of total sleep deprivation or to a normal sleep control condition. The next afternoon, responses to positive, negative, and neutral picture stimuli were examined with pupillography, an indicator of cognitive and affective information processing. Only the sleep-deprived group displayed significantly larger pupil diameter while viewing negative pictures compared to positive or neutral pictures. The sleep-deprived group also showed anticipatory pupillary reactivity during blocks of negative pictures. These data suggest that sleep deprivation is associated with increased reactions to negative emotional information. Such responses may have important implications for psychiatric disorders, which may be triggered or characterized by sleep disturbances.
ISSN:0301-0511
1873-6246
DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.10.010