Effects of paradoxical sleep deprivation on the performance of rats in a model of visual attention

In the present work we sought to evaluate the effects of paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) on the performance of rats in the five-choice serial reaction time task, a test designed to assess attentional function. Adult male Wistar rats were trained to detect a brief (1 s) light stimulus randomly presented in one of five locations in a box specially designed for the task. After achieving stable performance, the animals were submitted to 96 h of sleep deprivation by the platform technique, in which the rats are placed on top of small platforms in a tank filled with water. During sleep, particularly during the paradoxical stage, the loss of muscle tone make the animals fall into the water, thus awakening them and so depriving of sleep. Performance in the task was assessed daily during the 96 h deprivation period and also during seven recovery days afterwards. Paradoxical sleep deprivation reduced accuracy on the on the third (72 h) and fourth (96 h) days of sleep deprivation compared to home-cage controls, and this impairment reverted soon after the beginning of the recovery period. Sleep-deprived animals also showed an increase in omissions in the first day of PSD and a reduction on the number of trials started on the fourth day of sleep deprivation. No significant group differences were observed in premature and perseverative responses, correct response latency and reward latency. Our results thus indicate that paradoxical sleep deprivation impairs attentional function.