Effect of 72 h of Sleep Deprivation on the Iowa Gambling Task

Introduction: Sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on cognitive processes, including decision making. The present study investigated how 72 h of sleep deprivation influenced individual neural performance in the Iowa gambling task using event-related potential technology. Methods: Eleven healthy male adults who participated in our study were randomized to be either in group with 72 h of social isolation condition or 72 h of sleep deprivation condition. Results: Results showed that, in the feedback stage, the N250-400 amplitude was smaller in post-test than in pre-test for the sleep deprivation condition, especially in the frontal cortex. No significant difference between the pre-test and post-test condition was found in the social isolation condition. Conclusion: These results suggested that 72 h of sleep deprivation affected an individual's response to feedback stimuli, causing the individual to evaluate the stimuli slowly.