Mouse Gambling Task reveals differential effects of acute sleep debt on decision-making and associated neurochemical changes (original) (raw)
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2019
Socio-professional pressures push people to sleep less which leads to chronic sleep debt (CSD) for a significant percentage of the population. Although the health consequences of CSD are well known, research shows that high-level cognitive processes in humans are more affected by acute sleep debt (ASD) rather than CSD (Drake et al., 2001). We have previously shown that ASD has deleterious effects on decision-making in mice and that some mice were more sensitive to ASD than others (Pittaras et al., 2018) by using a rodent version of the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara et al., 1994). In this study, we showed that, as in humans, CSD has fewer effects on decision-making compared to ASD. We hypothesize that this observation was due to the set-up of a compensatory mechanism.
Impaired decision making following 49 h of sleep deprivation
Journal of Sleep Research, 2006
Sleep deprivation reduces regional cerebral metabolism within the prefrontal cortex, the brain region most responsible for higher-order cognitive processes, including judgment and decision making. Accordingly, we hypothesized that two nights of sleep loss would impair decision making quality and lead to increased risk-taking behavior on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which mimics real-world decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Thirty-four healthy participants completed the IGT at rested baseline and again following 49.5 h of sleep deprivation. At baseline, volunteers performed in a manner similar to that seen in most samples of healthy normal individuals, rapidly learning to avoid high-risk decks and selecting more frequently from advantageous lowrisk decks as the game progressed. After sleep loss, however, volunteers showed a strikingly different pattern of performance. Relative to rested baseline, sleep-deprived individuals tended to choose more frequently from risky decks as the game progressed, a pattern similar to, though less severe than, previously published reports of patients with lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Although risky decision making was not related to participant age when tested at rested baseline, age was negatively correlated with advantageous decision making on the IGT, when tested following sleep deprivation (i.e. older subjects made more risky choices). These findings suggest that cognitive functions known to be mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including decision making under conditions of uncertainty, may be particularly vulnerable to sleep loss and that this vulnerability may become more pronounced with increased age.
Clocks & Sleep, 2021
Animals, including humans, frequently make decisions involving risk or uncertainty. Different strategies in these decisions can be advantageous depending the circumstances. Short sleep duration seems to be associated with more risky decisions in humans. Animal models for risk-based decision making can increase mechanistic understanding, but very little data is available concerning the effects of sleep. We combined primary- and meta-research to explore the relationship between sleep and risk-based decision making in animals. Our first objective was to create an overview of the available animal models for risky decision making. We performed a systematic scoping review. Our searches in Pubmed and Psychinfo retrieved 712 references, of which 235 were included. Animal models for risk-based decision making have been described for rodents, non-human primates, birds, pigs and honey-bees. We discuss task designs and model validity. Our second objective was to apply this knowledge and perform...
Insufficient sleep: Enhanced risk-seeking relates to low local sleep intensity
Annals of Neurology
Objectives: Chronic sleep restriction is highly prevalent in modern society and is in its clinical form, insufficient sleep syndrome, one of the most prevalent diagnoses in clinical sleep laboratories, with substantial negative impact on health and community burden. It reflects everyday sleep loss better than acute sleep deprivation, but its effects and particularly the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown for a variety of critical cognitive domains, as for example risky decision-making. Methods: We assessed financial risk-taking behavior after 7 consecutive nights of sleep restriction and after one night of acute sleep deprivation compared to a regular sleep condition in a within-subject design. We further investigated potential underlying mechanisms of sleep loss induced changes in behavior by high-density electroencephalography recordings during restricted sleep. Results: We show that chronic sleep restriction increases risk-seeking, while this was not observed after acute sleep deprivation. This increase was subjectively not noticed and was related to locally lower values of slow wave energy during preceding sleep, an electrophysiological marker of sleep intensity and restoration, in electrodes over the right prefrontal cortex. Interpretation: This study provides for the first time evidence that insufficient sleep restoration over circumscribed cortical areas leads to aberrant behavior. In chronically sleep restricted subjects, low slow wave sleep intensity over the right prefrontal cortex-which has been shown to be linked to risk behavior-may lead to increased and subjectively unnoticed risk-seeking.
Neuropharmacology, 2012
Decision-making Gambling Serotonin Dopamine Prefrontal cortex Operant behaviour Animal model Diet manipulation a b s t r a c t Psycho-genetic studies have revealed a role for the brain serotonin system in gambling proneness and poor decision-making. We assessed whether manipulation of brain serotonin levels in rats affected performance in operant-based tasks for decision-making and gambling proneness. Male Wistar rats were exposed to an L-tryptophan (TRP) deficient diet (0.0 g/kg; TÀ group) or to a control, L-tryptophan containing diet (2.8 g/kg; Tþ group). The same rats were tested for decision-making performance in the rodent Iowa Gambling Task (rIGT) using home-cage operant panels, and subsequently for gambling proneness in a Probabilistic Delivery Task (rPDT) using classic Skinnerboxes. At sacrifice, monoamines and metabolites were evaluated with HPLC analysis, confirming a drastically reduced serotonin synthesis, as well as altered dopamine turnover in the prefrontal cortex of TÀ rats. As expected, control rats (Tþ) progressively chose the option with the best long-term payoff in the rIGT, and also shifted from "Large & Luck-Linked" (LLL) to "Small & Sure" (SS) reinforcers in the rPDT. In contrast, depleted animals (TÀ) exhibited a weaker improvement of performance in the rIGT and maintained a sub-optimal attraction for LLL reinforcer in the rPDT. Comparing individual performances in both tests, we found a significant correlation between the two tasks in control (Tþ) but not in depleted (TÀ) rats. The present study revealed that (1) brain 5-HT depletion leads to poor decision-making and to gambling proneness; (2) the relationship between these two traits, shown in the control group, was disrupted in 5-HT depleted rats. The data are discussed in terms of changes within forebrain loops involved in cognitive and motivational/affective processes.
Brain Structure and Function, 2014
A major challenge of decision-making research in recent years has been to develop models of poor decisionmaking to identify its neural bases. Toward this goal, we developed a Rat Gambling Task that discerns good and poor decision-makers in a complex and conflicting situation such as the human Iowa Gambling Task. Nothing is known about the role of the monoaminergic modulatory systems in shaping these phenotypes. Moreover, functional and temporal contributions of brain areas during poor compared to good decision-making remains elusive. Good and poor decisionmakers were identified in the Rat Gambling Task. We investigated neurobiological correlates of decision-making capacities in (1) dopamine and serotonin turnovers using post-mortem tissue measurements, (2) the neural circuits differentially recruited during decision-making within the prefronto-subcortical network using cellular Fos immunodetection. Imbalance in monoamine metabolism was revealed in poor decision-makers, i.e. a higher infralimbic vs. lower amygdala serotonergic metabolism. Moreover, good decision-making recruited a wide prefronto-subcortical network but once good choices had been made, a disengagement of key prefrontal areas (insular and infralimbic cortices notably) and the amygdala was observed. By contrast, poor decision-making was associated with a strikingly low recruitment of the prefronto-subcortical network, together with sustained amygdala activity. Our results identify two complementary neurobiological substrates characterizing poor decision-makers: imbalanced monoaminergic systems at rest, congruent with their previously identified complex behavioral phenotype, and an aberrant low recruitment of key brain areas for executive functions and affective valence during the process of decision-making. These biomarkers could sustain vulnerability to developing poor decisionmaking related disorders. Keywords Decision-making Á Gambling task Á Interindividual differences Á Fos neuronal marker Á Dopamine Á Serotonin Á Rodent model Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (
The Effects of Poor Quality Sleep on Brain Function and Risk Taking in Adolescence
Abstract Insufficient and poor quality sleep are pervasive during adolescence and relate to impairments in cognitive control and increased risk taking. However, the neurobiology underlying the association between sleep and adolescent behavior remain elusive. In the current study, we examine how poor sleep quality relates to cognitive control and reward related brain function during risk taking.