Rat psychomotor vigilance task with fast response times using a conditioned lick behavior

▶ The psychomotor vigilance task is a widely used test of simple reaction times and is a sensitive measure of sleep deprivation. ▶ Sucrose can be used as a reinforcer to maintain responding in conditioned learning paradigms without the need for deprivation. ▶ A significant decrease in percent correct hits occurred following 6 and 12 h of sleep deprivation and reaction times increased significantly following 12 h of sleep deprivation. ▶ Increases in EEG delta power and lower EMG power were observed prior to misses during sleep deprivation sessions. ▶ An increase in evoked response peak amplitudes was observed during conditioning, suggesting that plasticity may occur with conditioned learning. Investigations into the physiological mechanisms of sleep control require an animal psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) with fast response times (