Preferred Name
Morgan Crewe
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2585-8890
Date of Graduation
Spring 2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Jeff Dyche
Daniel D. Holt
Jeanne Horst
Abstract
The relation between chronic sleep restriction and performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) have been well documented in the human literature, with chronic sleep restriction as little as 7 hours per night resulting in significant impairment in sustained attention performance measured via the PVT. Recently, an analogous version of the human PVT has been developed for use with rodent models (rPVT). Recent studies have measured the effects of sleep restriction on rPVT performance, citing similar results found in the human literature. However, few studies to date have directly examined the role of adenosine accumulation during sleep deprivation in producing deficits in rPVT performance. The purpose of the current study was to extend previous rPVT research to include two adenosine antagonists as potential countermeasures for the effects of sleep restriction on rPVT performance in Sprague Dawley rats. After meeting baseline criterion, animals experienced two conditions for four days each: 6hr/day sleep restriction and 6hr/day sleep restriction followed by i.p. administration of an adenosine antagonist. Half of the animals received 30mg/kg caffeine, a non-selective adenosine antagonist, and half of the animals received 3mg/kg CPT, an adenosine A1 receptor antagonist. Performance on the rPVT was measured daily at 15:00. Mixed ANOVAs were conducted to analyze the effects of each condition on rPVT performance. No significant differences were found. Six hours per day of sleep restriction or administration of either adenosine antagonist had no effect on rPVT performance. Subsequently, a small group of animals underwent an additional 18hr/day sleep restriction condition. Visual analysis of this data showed that 18hr/day of sleep restriction had no effect on rPVT performance. The results of this study contradict previous studies using the rPVT, including a pilot study conducted in our lab. Potential explanations for these contradictory results are discussed, highlighting the potential for strain differences in rPVT performance and response to sleep restriction. Future research should seek to explore the effects of sleep restriction on rPVT performance across rat strains. Additionally, the role of adenosine accumulation during sleep deprivation in producing deficits in rPVT performance is still not well understood, and requires further investigation.
Recommended Citation
Crewe, Morgan, "The effects of adenosine antagonists on vigilant attention in sleep restricted rats" (2019). Masters Theses, 2010-2019. 612.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/612
