A night without sleep is followed by enhanced sleepiness, increased low-frequency activity in the waking EEG, and reduced vigilant attention. The magnitude of these changes is highly variable among healthy individuals. Findings in young men of low and high subjective caffeine sensitivity suggest that adenosinergic mechanisms contribute to inter-individual differences in sleep deprivation-induced changes in EEG theta activity, as well as optimal performance on the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). In comparison to young subjects, healthy adults of older age typically feel less sleepy after sleep deprivation, and show fewer response lapses, and faster reaction times on the PVT, especially in the morning after the night without sleep. We hypothesized that age-related changes in adenosine signal transmission underlie reduced vulnerability to sleep deprivation in older individuals. To test this hypothesis, the combined effects of prolonged wakefulness and the adenosine receptor antagonist, caffeine, on an antero-posterior power gradient in EEG theta activity and PVT performance were analyzed in healthy older and caffeine-insensitive and -sensitive young men. The results show that age-related differences in sleep loss-induced changes in brain rhythmic activity and neurobehavioral functions are mirrored in young individuals of low and high sensitivity to the stimulant effects of caffeine. Moreover, the effects of sleep deprivation and caffeine on regional theta power and vigilant attention are inversely correlated across older and young age groups. Genetic variants of the adenosine A(2A) receptor gene contribute to individual differences in neurobehavioral performance in rested and sleep deprived state, and modulate the actions of caffeine in wakefulness and sleep. Based upon this evidence, we propose that age-related differences in A(2A) receptor-mediated signal transduction could be involved in age-related changes in the vulnerability to acute sleep deprivation.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 January 2013.
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#5,675,790
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Outputs from Frontiers in Neurology
#3,908
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#50,632
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Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Neurology
#25
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Altmetric has tracked 22,691,736 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 74th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,593 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 116 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
