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Circadian and wake-dependent modulation of fastest and slowest reaction times during the psychomotor vigilance task
How body clock and wakefulness affect the fastest and slowest reaction times in a vigilance test
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Abstract
Performance on the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) reflects circadian modulation and sleep pressure effects.
- Sixteen healthy volunteers participated in two 40-hour protocols with varying sleep pressure conditions.
- Low sleep pressure was achieved with a cycle of 150 minutes awake followed by 75 minutes of sleep.
- High sleep pressure was induced through total sleep deprivation.
- Quantitative analysis showed that lapses and the slowest reaction times were sensitive to changes in sleep pressure.
- The difference between the fastest and slowest reaction times was particularly effective in detecting early effects of increasing sleep pressure.
- Circadian phase-related performance decrements did not significantly vary based on reaction time percentiles.
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