The neural response to sleep loss in the elderly

描述（由申请人提供）：在拟议的研究中，我们的主要目标是确定与年轻人相比，老年人在注意力任务和反应抑制任务的睡眠剥夺过程中，是否更不能招募补偿所需的神经区域。将使用视觉空间注意力和反应抑制任务，因为它们评估两个不同网络的功能，特别容易受到睡眠不足的影响。我们特别建议使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究36小时睡眠剥夺对视觉空间注意任务和反应抑制任务的神经反应的影响。功能磁共振成像（fMRI）将通过血氧水平依赖（BOLD）方法来测量血流变化。这种方法为这些拟议的调查提供了必要的高空间和时间分辨率。将检查年龄和任务类型的影响，以确定睡眠不足如何与这些因素相互作用，从而导致神经功能改变和表现受损。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the proposed study, our primary goal is to determine if older adults, as compared to younger adults, will be less able to recruit neural areas necessary for compensation during sleep deprivation on an attention task and a task of response inhibition. Tasks of visual spatial attention and response inhibition will be used, because they assess the functioning of two distinct networks particularly vulnerable to sleep loss. We specifically propose to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of 36 hours of sleep deprivation on the neural response to both a visual spatial attention task and a task of response inhibition. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) will be used to measure blood flow changes via the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) method. This method allows for the high spatial and temporal resolution necessary for these proposed investigations. Influence of age and task type will be examined to determine how sleep loss interacts with each of these factors to produce altered neural function and impaired performance.