Electrophysiological Assessment of Attention Bias in Good vs. Poor Sleepers
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1
University of Kansas, Psychology, United States
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2
VA Long Beach Healthcare System, United States
Research has shown that poor sleep quality can result in deficiencies in concentration, vigilance, and sustained attention. The Cognitive Model of Insomnia Maintenance (Harvey, 2002) argues that insomnia is related to selective attention to sleep disturbance and sleep related information. This leads to the complex prediction that poor sleepers will have decreased general attention, but sleep-related cues may receive increased attention. The current research utilized ERP methods, specifically P3 amplitude, to examine attention in individuals with poor sleep quality. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; Buysse, 1989). 38 good sleepers (15 males) and 31 poor sleepers (23 males) were selected. Participants completed five tasks that measured general attention/P3 amplitude (in an animal detection task) and also attention for four other rare words types (negative- TRASH, positive - GIFT, negative sleep-FATIQUE, positive sleep- RESTED). Overall, participants exhibited a reliable P3 to rare animal stimuli, but no difference between good and poor sleeper groups. There were group differences in P3 amplitude for negative vs. positive words, particularly for female participants. The female poor sleepers show a strong attention bias (indicated by larger P3 amplitude) for negative stimuli. However, sleep relationship did not add to this interaction, poor sleepers show an elevated P3 for all negative stimuli (TRASH and FATIGUE). The cognitive theory of the maintenance of insomnia holds that it is maintained because of hyper-attention to sleep-related environmental cues. Our data suggests that this is not the case, as there were no differences between good and poor sleepers with respect to P3 amplitude in response to sleep-related words generally. To the extent that selective attention influences individuals with poor sleep, our data suggests that it is an overall negativity bias that is present, particularly in female poor sleepers.
Keywords:
Attention,
insomnia,
ERPs,
P3,
sleep quality
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Atchley
R and
Stroupe
N
(2015). Electrophysiological Assessment of Attention Bias in Good vs. Poor Sleepers.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00019
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
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Correspondence:
Dr. Ruth Ann Atchley, University of Kansas, Psychology, Lawrence, United States, ratchley@ku.edu