AUTHOR=Li Yutong , Ma Mengke , Shao Yongcong , Wang Wei 

TITLE=Enhanced effective connectivity from the middle frontal gyrus to the parietal lobe is associated with impaired mental rotation after total sleep deprivation: An electroencephalogram study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.910618

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2022.910618

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=Sleep deprivation impairs cognitive functions, including attention, memory, and decision-making. However, little research has been conducted on the neuro-electro-physiological mechanisms of total sleep deprivation (TSD) impairing spatial cognition. Based on electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, this study focused on the effects of TSD on mental rotation and the cognitive neural mechanisms underlying its damage. Thirty healthy college students completed the mental rotation tasks while resting and after 36 h of TSD and their EEG data were simultaneously recorded.. Changes in event-related potential (ERP) components related to mental rotation were observed and traced, and changes in effective connectivity between multiple regions in the brain related to mental rotation cognitive processing were calculated. Compared with the baseline before TSD, the amplitude of the P300 components related to mental rotation decreased. The task-state data were traced to the source of the difference in ERP current density, and it was found that the brain regions related to the difference in the decrease in P300 amplitude included the superior parietal lobule, precuneus, prefrontal lobe, and other related regions. Task-state effective connectivity analysis found that TSD enhanced the effective connectivity from the left middle frontal gyrus to the left superior parietal lobule, left inferior parietal lobule, and left precuneus under the same conditions. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the change in accuracy and the change in increased effective connectivity. Thus, we suggest that enhanced effective connectivity between the middle frontal gyrus and the parietal lobe in the task state is associated with impaired mental rotation after TSD.