Local slow-wave activity in regular sleep is associated with individual risk preferences

Studler, Mirjam; Gianotti, Lorena; Koch, Katharina Sophia; Hausfeld, Jan; Tarokh, Leila; Maric, Angelina; Knoch, Daria (28 September 2022). Local slow-wave activity in regular sleep is associated with individual risk preferences (Unpublished). In: 26th Congress of the European Sleep Research Society. Athen. 28.09.2022.

Objectives/Introduction: Risky behaviours can have enormous health and economic consequences and the propensity to engage in risky decisions greatly differs between individuals. Previous research has shown that manipulation of sleep affects risky decision-making. However, it yet remains to be understood how individual temporally stable neural sleep characteristics in regular, healthy sleep relate to individual differences in risk preferences.
Methods: Using a portable high-density polysomnographic system we collected sleep electroencephalographic (EEG) data in 54 healthy young adults at participants’ home without experimenter’s supervision (21.11 ± 2.04 years, 42 females). Slow-wave activity (SWA; spectral power 0.8-4.6 Hz) was computed in sleep stages N2 and N3. Before statistical analysis, individual SWA distribution maps were normalized to the mean values across all electrodes to reduce confounds without regional specificity. Risk preferences were assessed using a newly developed task in the behavioral laboratory.
Results: Participants showed large inter-individual variability in risk preferences (mean 16.48, SD=9.7, range:0-40). Regression analyses revealed that lower local sleep depth, as reflected by SWA in a cluster of electrodes located over the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) is associated with higher individual risk preferences (rho(52) = -0.38, p = 0.004, R2 = 0.14, cluster based corrected for multiple testing). Importantly, controlling for total sleep time or time spent in deep sleep, i.e. stages N2 and N3 did not affect this result (rho(51) = -0.39, p = 0.004, R2= 0.15; rho(51) = −0.39, p = 0.004, R2 = 0.15). Moreover, the association between SWA over the right prefrontal cortex and risk preferences was evident across all sleep cycles.
Conclusion: Our findings show that local sleep depth in the right PFC has a significant impact on risk preferences. The right PFC is an area involved in cognitive control functions. Hence, we speculate that local sleep depth in the right PFC might serve as a dispositional indicator of impulse control ability, which is expressed in risk preferences.
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose. Funding: Typhaine Foundation

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Studler, Mirjam, Gianotti, Lorena, Koch, Katharina Sophia, Hausfeld, Jan, Tarokh, Leila, Knoch, Daria

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

Language:

English

Submitter:

Mirjam Studler

Date Deposited:

28 Mar 2023 16:23

Last Modified:

17 Apr 2023 16:38

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/180856

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