[Research Progress in Examination Methods,Influencing Factors, and Drug Treatment of Vigilance].

Vigilance is a sensitive ability to respond to small changes in the environment and it is a major component of various cognitive performance tasks.Professionals in a variety of fields require high physical and vigilance performance during the working process to ensure productivity,workplace safety,and their own safety. This article reviews the research progress in vigilance in terms of the examination methods,influencing factors,and drug treatment in recent years,aiming to improve the understanding of vigilance and provide support for the research on vigilance and clinical treatment of vigilance-related dysfunctions.

Locus coeruleus microstructural integrity is associated with vigilance vulnerability to sleep deprivation.

Insufficient sleep compromises cognitive performance, diminishes vigilance, and disrupts daily functioning in hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite extensive research revealing significant variability in vigilance vulnerability to sleep deprivation, the underlying mechanisms of these individual differences remain elusive. Locus coeruleus (LC) plays a crucial role in the regulation of sleep-wake cycles and has emerged as a potential marker for vigilance vulnerability to sleep deprivation. In this study, we investigate whether LC microstructural integrity, assessed by fractional anisotropy (FA) through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at baseline before sleep deprivation, can predict impaired psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) performance during sleep deprivation in a cohort of 60 healthy individuals subjected to a rigorously controlled in-laboratory sleep study. The findings indicate that individuals with high LC FA experience less vigilance impairment from sleep deprivation compared with those with low LC FA. LC FA accounts for 10.8% of the variance in sleep-deprived PVT lapses. Importantly, the relationship between LC FA and impaired PVT performance during sleep deprivation is anatomically specific, suggesting that LC microstructural integrity may serve as a biomarker for vigilance vulnerability to sleep loss.

Electrodermal lability and sensorimotor preparation: effects on reaction time, contingent negative variation, and heart rate.

Electrodermal lability is a trait-like measure of spontaneous sympathetic resting activity. In the present study, we addressed whether interindividual differences in this lability have an impact on the reaction time (RT) and on two physiological indicators of a goal-oriented sensorimotor preparation in a long-running, forewarned RT task (S1-S2 paradigm). The two indicators were the brain's contingent negative variation (CNV) and a heart rate deceleration (HRD). The interindividual differences were determined by counting spontaneous skin conductance fluctuations during a 5-min resting phase and dividing the subjects into two groups: individuals below (stable) and above (labile) the median of these fluctuations. In the task, labile individuals had a shorter RT compared with stable individuals and showed in the final phase of preparation in both physiological indicators the stronger response. Thus, lability-dependent effects in forewarned RT tasks cannot be explained by differences in stimulus-driven or passively controlled processes alone. Rather, goal-oriented, deliberately controlled processes that serve to adequately prepare for an imperative stimulus-the S2 in our paradigm-also must be considered to explain them. Labile individuals not only react faster than stable ones but also intentionally prepare themselves more appropriately for the imperative stimulus. A norepinephrine hypothesis focusing on the tonic activity of the locus coeruleus (LC) is proposed as an explanation for these and other lability-dependent effects. The frequency of spontaneous electrodermal fluctuations at rest may represent a peripheral, noninvasive, and easily measurable indicator of the baseline LC activity during wakefulness.

Can transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation mitigate vigilance loss? Examining the effects of stimulation at individualized versus constant current intensity.

According to the arousal model of vigilance, the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system modulates sustained attention over long periods by regulating physiological arousal. Recent research has proposed that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) modulates indirect physiological markers of LC-NE activity, although its effects on vigilance have not yet been examined. Aiming to develop a safe and noninvasive procedure to prevent vigilance failures in prolonged tasks, the present study examined whether taVNS can mitigate vigilance loss while modulating indirect markers of LC-NE activity. Following a preregistered protocol (https://osf.io/tu2xy/), 50 participants completed three repeated sessions in a randomized order, in which either active taVNS at individualized intensity set by participant, active taVNS set at 0.5 mA for all participants, or sham taVNS, was delivered while performing an attentional and vigilance task (i.e., ANTI-Vea). Changes in salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol concentrations were measured as markers of LC-NE activity. Self-reports of feelings associated with stimulation and guessing rate of active/sham conditions supported the efficacy of the single-blind procedure. Contrary to our predictions, the observed vigilance decrement was not modulated by active taVNS. Pairwise comparisons showed a mitigation by active taVNS on cortisol reduction across time. Interestingly, Spearman's correlational analyses showed some interindividual effects of taVNS on indirect markers of LC-NE, evidenced by positive associations between changes in salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol in active but not sham taVNS. We highlight the relevance of replicating and extending the present outcomes, investigating further parameters of stimulation and its effects on other indirect markers of LC-NE activity.

Sleep-aiding music therapy for insomnia: Exploring EEG functional connectivity of sleep-related attentional bias.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep-aiding music and sleep-related attentional bias based on electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity (FC) in patients with insomnia disorder (ID), to evaluate the effectiveness of music in aiding sleep. METHOD: This study included 30 participants, comprising 15 patients with ID and 15 healthy controls (HCs). Six types of music were selected for sleep aid, and a dot-probe task based on sleep-related attentional bias was utilized to collect behavioral and EEG data. Vigilance bias and disengagement bias were measured using reaction time and EEG FC. Differences in sleep-related attentional bias before and after the intervention of music were explored to evaluate the sleep-aiding effects and identify EEG biomarkers. RESULTS: Compared with HCs, patients with ID showed decreased sleep-related attentional bias of EEG FC between occipital-central and temporal-frontal lobes. Among the six types of music, International Standard Sleep Aid and Lullaby had a greater impact on decreasing vigilance bias in the ID group. Additionally, the International Standard Sleep Aid and Nature Sound were more effective in decreasing disengagement bias in the ID group. This study also examined the resting-state EEG FC of patients with ID before and after the intervention of music. The results showed that the FC in the temporal, frontal, and occipital lobes significantly differed before and after the intervention of music, especially with the use of International Standard Sleep Aid, Lullaby, and Alpha Sound Wave. However, it is worth noting that these three types of music showed no similarities in EEG FC, in contrast to the result of sleep-related attentional bias of EEG FC. CONCLUSION: This study found that the sleep-related attentional bias of EEG FC has more distinct characteristics when compared to resting-state EEG FC. The results suggest that the sleep-related attentional bias of EEG FC could be a potential biomarker for assessing the sleep-aiding effect of music interventions. International Standard Sleep Aid was the most effective for patients with ID among six types of sleep-aiding music. These findings could facilitate the development of personalized therapies for patients with ID. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Register, http://www.chictr.org.cn, ID: ChiCTR2400081608.

Contrastive fine-grained domain adaptation network for EEG-based vigilance estimation.

Vigilance state is crucial for the effective performance of users in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Most vigilance estimation methods rely on a large amount of labeled data to train a satisfactory model for the specific subject, which limits the practical application of the methods. This study aimed to build a reliable vigilance estimation method using a small amount of unlabeled calibration data. We conducted a vigilance experiment in the designed BCI-based cursor-control task. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals of eighteen participants were recorded in two sessions on two different days. And, we proposed a contrastive fine-grained domain adaptation network (CFGDAN) for vigilance estimation. Here, an adaptive graph convolution network (GCN) was built to project the EEG data of different domains into a common space. The fine-grained feature alignment mechanism was designed to weight and align the feature distributions across domains at the EEG channel level, and the contrastive information preservation module was developed to preserve the useful target-specific information during the feature alignment. The experimental results show that the proposed CFGDAN outperforms the compared methods in our BCI vigilance dataset and SEED-VIG dataset. Moreover, the visualization results demonstrate the efficacy of the designed feature alignment mechanisms. These results indicate the effectiveness of our method for vigilance estimation. Our study is helpful for reducing calibration efforts and promoting the practical application potential of vigilance estimation methods.

Tracking Vigilance Fluctuations in Real-Time: A Sliding-Window HRV-based Machine-Learning Approach.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Heart rate variability (HRV)-based machine learning models hold promise for real-world vigilance evaluation, yet their real-time applicability is limited by lengthy feature extraction times and reliance on subjective benchmarks. This study aimed to improve the objectivity and efficiency of HRV-based vigilance evaluation by associating HRV and behavior metrics through a sliding-window approach. METHODS: Forty-four healthy adults underwent psychomotor vigilance tasks under both well-rested and sleep-deprived conditions, with simultaneous electrocardiogram recording. A sliding-window approach (30s length, 10s step) was used for HRV feature extraction and behavior assessment. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to examine how HRV related to objective vigilance levels. Stability selection technique was applied for feature selection, and the vigilance ground truth-high (fastest 40%), intermediate (middle 20%), and low (slowest 40%)-were determined based on each participant's range of performance. Four machine-learning classifiers-k-nearest neighbours, support vector machine (SVM), AdaBoost, and random forest-were trained and tested using cross-validation. RESULTS: Fluctuated vigilance performance indicated pronounced state instability, particularly after sleep deprivation. Temporary decrements in performance were associated with a decrease in heart rate and an increase in time-domain heart rate variability. SVM achieved the best performance, with a cross-validated accuracy of 89% for binary classification of high versus low vigilance epochs. Overall accuracy dropped to 72% for three-class classification in leave-one-participant-out cross-validation, but SVM maintained a precision of 84% in identifying low-vigilance epochs. CONCLUSIONS: Sliding-window-based HRV metrics would effectively capture the fluctuations in vigilance during task execution, enabling more timely and accurate detection of performance decrement.

Phenotyping patients treated for obstructive sleep apnea with persistent objective impaired alertness or subjective sleepiness.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sleepiness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with accidental and economic burden, as well as cardiovascular risk. Despite OSA treatment, 10-28 % of patients report residual sleepiness. Its determinants, as well as those of objective impaired alertness remain poorly known. In this study, we investigated factors associated with residual subjective sleepiness and objective impaired alertness in patients treated for OSA. METHODS: Consecutive OSA treated patients referred for maintenance of wakefulness tests (MWT) at a tertiary university center were recruited between 2017 and 2020. Clinical data and polysomnography parameters were compared between patients with vs without subjective sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale, ESS≥11) and those with vs without impaired alertness (at least one trial with sleep onset on MWT). A multivariate logistic model was used to assess explanatory variables of MWT and ESS results. RESULTS: We included 141 patients, of whom 12.8 % had both subjective sleepiness and objective impaired alertness, 17.7 % objective impaired alertness only and 9.2 % subjective sleepiness only. Self-reported history of car accident/near miss, smoking history and ESS≥11 were significantly associated with objective impaired alertness whereas residual Apnea-hypopnea Index and CPAP use were not. The only significant variable associated with ESS at the time of MWT evaluation was initial ESS. Patients with objective impaired alertness only were more often smokers (52 % vs 19 %, p = 0.01), had a higher body mass index (BMI) (32 vs 29 kg/m2, p = 0.05), and showed lower initial ESS (11 vs 13, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: More than one third of OSA treated patients referred for MWT have objective impaired alertness and/or subjective sleepiness. Our findings highlight the need for a comprehensive medical assessment including accident history, subjective sleepiness and comorbidities. Particular attention should be paid to smoking patients with high BMI, who are at risk of impaired alertness with no report of subjective sleepiness.

Sustained predation pressure may prevent the loss of anti-predator traits from havened populations.

Conservation havens free of invasive predators are increasingly relied upon for fauna conservation, although havened populations can lose anti-predator traits, likely making them less suitable for life 'beyond the fence'. Sustaining low levels of mammalian predator pressure inside havens may prevent the loss of anti-predator traits from havened populations. We opportunistically compared behavioural and morphological anti-predator traits between four woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi) populations- one haven isolated from all mammalian predators, one haven containing a native mammalian predator (chuditch; Dasyurus geoffroii), and their respective non-havened counterparts (each containing both chuditch and invasive predators). Havened woylies existing without mammalian predators were smaller (shorter hindfeet, smaller body weight) and less reactive (consumed more food from fox-treated and control feeding stations, less agitated during human handling) than a non-havened reference population. However, in the haven containing chuditch, we found no difference in behaviour or morphology compared to the adjacent non-havened population. Across populations, anti-predator responses tended to appear stronger at sites with higher predator activity, suggestive of an adaptive response across a gradient of predation pressure. Our findings suggest that maintaining mammalian predation pressure in conservation havens could be effective for preventing or slowing the loss of anti-predator traits from these populations.

Metronidazole-Induced Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) Syndrome With Parvovirus B19 Reactivation: A Pediatric Case.

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a severe and rare syndrome that causes life-threatening organ dysfunctions. Here, we present the case of a 10-year-old child who developed a pruritic erythematous eruption, fever, facial edema, and lymphadenopathy seven days after receiving intravenous metronidazole (20 mg/kg/day), vancomycin (50 mg/kg/day), and cefotaxime (200 mg/kg/day). Laboratory tests showed eosinophilia and liver damage as well as positive parvovirus B19 IgM and IgG indicating viral reactivation. Vancomycin was initially discontinued and later reintroduced with no ill effects. The patient was managed with topical corticosteroid emollients and cetirizine and improved within seven days of metronidazole withdrawal. Treatment with cefotaxime was continued and showed no adverse effects.

Fluctuation in cortical excitation/inhibition modulates capability of attention across time scales ranging from hours to seconds.

Sustained attention, as the basis of general cognitive ability, naturally varies across different time scales, spanning from hours, e.g. from wakefulness to drowsiness state, to seconds, e.g. trial-by-trail fluctuation in a task session. Whether there is a unified mechanism underneath such trans-scale variability remains unclear. Here we show that fluctuation of cortical excitation/inhibition (E/I) is a strong modulator to sustained attention in humans across time scales. First, we observed the ability to attend varied across different brain states (wakefulness, postprandial somnolence, sleep deprived), as well as within any single state with larger swings. Second, regardless of the time scale involved, we found highly attentive state was always linked to more balanced cortical E/I characterized by electroencephalography (EEG) features, while deviations from the balanced state led to temporal decline in attention, suggesting the fluctuation of cortical E/I as a common mechanism underneath trans-scale attentional variability. Furthermore, we found the variations of both sustained attention and cortical E/I indices exhibited fractal structure in the temporal domain, exhibiting features of self-similarity. Taken together, these results demonstrate that sustained attention naturally varies across different time scales in a more complex way than previously appreciated, with the cortical E/I as a shared neurophysiological modulator.

NREM sleep brain networks modulate cognitive recovery from sleep deprivation.

Decrease in cognitive performance after sleep deprivation followed by recovery after sleep suggests its key role, and especially non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, in the maintenance of cognition. It remains unknown whether brain network reorganization in NREM sleep stages N2 and N3 can uniquely be mapped onto individual differences in cognitive performance after a recovery nap following sleep deprivation. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we quantified the integration and segregation of brain networks during NREM sleep stages N2 and N3 while participants took a 1-hour nap following 24-hour sleep deprivation, compared to well-rested wakefulness. Here, we advance a new analytic framework called the hierarchical segregation index (HSI) to quantify network segregation across spatial scales, from whole-brain to the voxel level, by identifying spatio-temporally overlapping large-scale networks and the corresponding voxel-to-region hierarchy. Our results show that network segregation increased in the default mode, dorsal attention and somatomotor networks during NREM sleep compared to wakefulness. Segregation within the visual, limbic, and executive control networks exhibited N2 versus N3 sleep-specific voxel-level patterns. More segregation during N3 was associated with worse recovery of working memory, executive attention, and psychomotor vigilance after the nap. The level of spatial resolution of network segregation varied among brain regions and was associated with the recovery of performance in distinct cognitive tasks. We demonstrated the sensitivity and reliability of voxel-level HSI to provide key insights into within-region variation, suggesting a mechanistic understanding of how NREM sleep replenishes cognition after sleep deprivation.

Electrophysiological correlation between executive vigilance and attention network based on cognitive resource control theory.

Attention is comprised of three independent and interacting attention networks: phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control. Previous studies have explored event-related potentials associated with these attention networks and executive vigilance, there is a lack of research on the relationship between executive vigilance and the three attention networks. However, there is a lack of research on the relationship between executive vigilance and the three attention networks. The present study aims to investigate this relationship. Based on the theory of cognitive resource control, two experimental blocks were designed with the vigilance task as the control variable. A total of 39 participants completed both ANTI and ANTI-V trials (two variants of the traditional attention network test ANT) in the same period. Through analysis of behavior measures (RT) and electrophysiological results related to phasic alertness (N1, P2, and contingent negative variation), orienting (P1, N1, and P3), and executive control (N2 and slow positive potential), we found that the reaction time of the ANTI block was lower than that of the ANTI-V block under all conditions, This suggests that adding a vigilance task may lead to reduced allocation of attention resources across all three attention networks. Furthermore, the orienting ability was weaker in the ANTI-V experimental block compared to that in the ANTI block due to effects on P1 and P3 regulation by the vigilance task. The N2 amplitude of the ANTI-V block was consistently reduced under similar conditions, indicating a weakening of executive control ability. The electrophysiological results revealed that executive vigilance inhibited the component of early attention perception related to the orienting network and was also related to the ability to detect conflict in the executive control network.

Acute and Repeated Ashwagandha Supplementation Improves Markers of Cognitive Function and Mood.

BACKGROUND: Ashwagandha has been reported to reduce stress and attenuate cognitive decline associated with inflammation and neurodegeneration in clinical populations. However, the effects as a potential nootropic nutrient in younger populations are unclear. This study examined the effects of liposomal ashwagandha supplementation on cognitive function, mood, and markers of health and safety in healthy young men and women. METHODS: 59 men and women (22.7 ± 7 yrs., 74.9 ± 16 kg, 26.2 ± 5 BMI) fasted for 12 h, donated a fasting blood sample, and were administered the COMPASS cognitive function test battery (Word Recall, Word recognition, Choice Reaction Time Task, Picture Recognition, Digit Vigilance Task, Corsi Block test, Stroop test) and profile of mood states (POMS). In a randomized and double-blind manner, participants were administered 225 mg of a placebo (Gum Arabic) or ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root and leaf extract coated with a liposomal covering. After 60-min, participants repeated cognitive assessments. Participants continued supplementation (225 mg/d) for 30 days and then returned to the lab to repeat the experiment. Data were analyzed using a general linear model (GLM) univariate analysis with repeated measures and pairwise comparisons of mean changes from baseline with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Ashwagandha supplementation improved acute and/or 30-day measures of Word Recall (correct and recalled attempts), Choice Reaction Time (targets identified), Picture Recognition ("yes" correct responses, correct and overall reaction time), Digit Vigilance (correct reaction time), Stroop Color-Word (congruent words identified, reaction time), and POMS (tension and fatigue) from baseline more consistently with several differences observed between groups. CONCLUSION: Results support contentions that ashwagandha supplementation (225 mg) may improve some measures of memory, attention, vigilance, attention, and executive function while decreasing perceptions of tension and fatigue in younger healthy individuals. Retrospectively registered clinical trial ISRCTN58680760.

Gazing Strategies among Sentinels of a Cooperative Breeder Are Repeatable but Unrelated to Survival.

Vigilance is a common behavioural adaptation to increase the chances of detecting predators before it is too late to escape. Behavioural traits are often repeatable among individuals over the long term, suggesting differences in personality. Earlier studies have documented individual consistency in the time allocated to vigilance. However, little is known about individual consistency in the ways vigilance is achieved from one moment to another and whether different patterns of vigilance among individuals are associated with survival. We aimed to determine whether sentinels of a cooperative breeder showed individual consistency in their vigilance and if individual variation was related to annual survival. During sentinel bouts from vantage points, Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) turn their heads from side to side to monitor their surroundings. Over three field seasons, we found that the head-turning frequency was repeatable in breeders but not in juveniles or non-breeding helpers. The moderate repeatability in breeders was not related to survival. Our results suggest that the head-turning frequency in sentinels of the Florida scrub-jay is repeatable in breeders but not in less experienced juveniles or helpers and, therefore, likely becomes more repeatable as individuals age. The assumption that individual variation in vigilance is related to survival was unsupported in our study and requires further study.

Auditory vigilance task performance and cerebral hemodynamics: effects of spatial uncertainty.

The vigilance decrement, a temporal decline in detection performance, has been observed across multiple sensory modalities. Spatial uncertainty about the location of task-relevant stimuli has been demonstrated to increase the demands of vigilance and increase the severity of the vigilance decrement when attending to visual displays. The current study investigated whether spatial uncertainty also increases the severity of the vigilance decrement and task demands when an auditory display is used. Individuals monitored an auditory display to detect critical signals that were shorter in duration than non-target stimuli. These auditory stimuli were presented in either a consistent, predictable pattern that alternated sound presentation from left to right (spatial certainty) or an inconsistent, unpredictable pattern that randomly presented sounds from the left or right (spatial uncertainty). Cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) was measured to assess the neurophysiological demands of the task. A decline in performance and CBFV was observed in both the spatially certain and spatially uncertain conditions, suggesting that spatial auditory vigilance tasks are demanding and can result in a vigilance decrement. Spatial uncertainty resulted in a more severe vigilance decrement in correct detections compared to spatial certainty. Reduced right-hemispheric CBFV was also observed during spatial uncertainty compared to spatial certainty. Together, these results suggest that auditory spatial uncertainty hindered performance and required greater attentional demands compared to spatial certainty. These results concur with previous research showing the negative impact of spatial uncertainty in visual vigilance tasks, but the current results contrast recent research showing no effect of spatial uncertainty on tactile vigilance.

Activation of androgen receptor-expressing neurons in the posterior medial amygdala is associated with stress resistance in dominant male hamsters.

Social stress is a negative emotional experience that can increase fear and anxiety. Dominance status can alter the way individuals react to and cope with stressful events. The underlying neurobiology of how social dominance produces stress resistance remains elusive, although experience-dependent changes in androgen receptor (AR) expression is thought to play an essential role. Using a Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) model, we investigated whether dominant individuals activate more AR-expressing neurons in the posterior dorsal and posterior ventral regions of the medial amygdala (MePD, MePV), and display less social anxiety-like behavior following social defeat stress compared to subordinate counterparts. We allowed male hamsters to form and maintain a dyadic dominance relationship for 12 days, exposed them to social defeat stress, and then tested their approach-avoidance behavior using a social avoidance test. During social defeat stress, dominant subjects showed a longer latency to submit and greater c-Fos expression in AR+ cells in the MePD/MePV compared to subordinates. We found that social defeat exposure reduced the amount of time animals spent interacting with a novel conspecific 24 h later, although there was no effect of dominance status. The amount of social vigilance shown by dominants during social avoidance testing was positively correlated with c-Fos expression in AR+ cells in the MePV. These findings indicate that dominant hamsters show greater neural activity in AR+ cells in the MePV during social defeat compared to their subordinate counterparts, and this pattern of neural activity correlates with their proactive coping response. Consistent with the central role of androgens in experience-dependent changes in aggression, activation of AR+ cells in the MePD/MePV contributes to experience-dependent changes in stress-related behavior.

The effect of experimentally induced sleep fragmentation and estradiol suppression on neurobehavioral performance and subjective sleepiness in premenopausal women.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Menopause is associated with nighttime sleep fragmentation, declining estradiol, and impaired cognition. In a model of pharmacologically induced estradiol suppression mimicking menopause, we examined the impact of menopause-pattern sleep fragmentation on daytime neurobehavioral performance and sleepiness in premenopausal women. METHODS: Twenty premenopausal women completed two five-night inpatient studies in the mid-to-late follicular phase (estrogenized) and after pharmacological estradiol suppression (hypo-estrogenized). During each study, participants had an uninterrupted 8-hour sleep opportunity for two nights, followed by three nights where sleep was experimentally fragmented to mimic menopause-pattern sleep disturbance, and during which the sleep opportunity was extended to prevent shortening of the sleep duration. Neurobehavioral performance and subjective sleepiness were measured using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). RESULTS: Compared to unfragmented sleep, sleep fragmentation increased attentional lapses (+ 0.6 lapses, p < .05), slowed reaction time (+ 9.4 milliseconds, p < .01), and increased daytime sleepiness (+ 0.5 KSS score, p < .001). Estradiol suppression increased attentional lapses (+ 0.8; p < .001) and reaction time (+ 12.3, p < .01) but did not significantly affect daytime sleepiness. The effect of sleep fragmentation on neurobehavioral performance differed by estradiol state, such that the adverse effects of sleep fragmentation on attentional lapses (+ 0.9, trend p = .06) and reaction time (+ 15, p < .05) were observed only when estrogenized. CONCLUSIONS: Menopause-pattern sleep fragmentation and estradiol suppression worsened neurobehavioral performance and daytime sleepiness, even while sleep duration was not reduced. The adverse effects of sleep fragmentation in the context of an adequate sleep duration highlight the importance of sleep continuity as a vital aspect of good sleep health.

Übersichtsarbeiten / Review Articles. Die Entwicklung von epistemischerWachsamkeit und epistemischem Vertrauen über die Lebensspanne: Perspektive aus der empirischen Forschung zum selbstregulierenden sozialen Lernen / The Development of Epistemic Vigilance and Epistemic Trust Across the Lifespan: Perspectives from Empirical Research on Self-Regulatory Social Learning.

The Development of Epistemic Vigilance and Epistemic Trust Across the Lifespan: Perspectives from Empirical Research on Self-Regulatory Social Learning This article examines what we know about the development of epistemic vigilance and epistemic trust between early infancy and adolescence.With this brief review, we intend to help put into perspective the hypotheses advanced by Fonagy and his colleagues within the socio-epistemic theory of psychopathology, according to which psychopathology reflects a closure to interpersonal communication resulting from unfavorable learning experiences in early development. Here, we will discuss how children become sensitive to overt interpersonal communication, and what cognitive skills underpin such sensitivity. Next, we shall discuss the empirical evidence that children in the second year of life already possess a rudimentary capacity for epistemic vigilance: they seem to evaluate the competence of different adult informants and appear to seek information and learn from adults based on such evaluations. Third, we will outline studies showing that in the third year of life children appear to increasingly trust ostensive communication, up to the point of becoming (at least apparently) less sensitive to the possibility of being misinformed or deceived. Finally, we will discuss how, between late childhood and adolescence, children first learn to distinguish lies, then irony, and increasingly engage in complex communication ecologies. Our review simultaneously supports the basic principles of the socio-epistemic theory of psychopathology and suggests that the theory needs further refinement of its ontogenetic predictions.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback training regulates time-on-task effects and enhances sustained cognitive performance.

Time-on-task effect is a common consequence of long-term cognitive demand work, which reflects reduced behavioral performance and increases the risk of accidents. Neurofeedback is a neuromodulation method that can guide individuals to regulate their brain activity and manifest as changes in related symptoms and cognitive behaviors. This study aimed to examine the effects of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback training on time-on-task effects and sustained cognitive performance. A randomized, single-blind, sham-controlled study was performed: 17 participants received feedback signals of their own dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity (neurofeedback group), and 16 participants received feedback signals of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity from the neurofeedback group (sham-neurofeedback group). All participants received 5 neurofeedback training sessions and completed 2 sustained cognitive tasks, including a 2-back task and a psychomotor vigilance task, to evaluate behavioral performance changes following neurofeedback training. Results showed that neurofeedback relative to the sham-neurofeedback group exhibited increased dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation, increased accuracy in the 2-back task, and decreased mean response time in the psychomotor vigilance task after neurofeedback training. In addition, the neurofeedback group showed slower decline performance during the sustained 2-back task after neurofeedback training compared with sham-neurofeedback group. These findings demonstrate that neurofeedback training could regulate time-on-task effects on difficult task and enhance performance on sustained cognitive tasks by increasing dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity.