Ultradian Cognitive Performance Rhythms During Sleep Deprivation

The impact of ovarian hormones on hamster ultradian rhythms (URs) is unknown. We concurrently monitored URs and circadian rhythms (CRs) of home cage locomotor activity during the estrous cycle, pregnancy, and lactation of Syrian hamsters. URs with a mean period of 4-5 h were evident during the dark phase in more than 90% of females on days 1 and 2 of the estrous cycle but were significantly less prevalent on cycle days 3 and 4. The period of the UR did not vary as a function of estrous cycle stage, but at all stages, the UR period was longer in the dark than the light phase. The UR acrophase occurred significantly earlier on cycle day 4 than on days 1 and 2, and UR robustness and amplitude were reduced on days 3 and 4. Robustness, mesor, and amplitude of CRs were greater during cycle days 3 and 4; timing of the CR acrophase was delayed on day 4 relative to all other cycle days. Effects of the estrous cycle on URs were evident only during the dark phase. The proportion of hamsters displaying dark phase URs increased significantly during early and late gestation and decreased during lactation. Pregnancy significantly increased UR complexity, robustness, and amplitude. The emergence of URs over gestation was paralleled by decrements in the robustness and amplitude of CRs, which also were absent in a significant proportion of dams during lactation but re-emerged at weaning of litters. The changing endocrine profile of the estrous cycle, hormonal dynamics of pregnancy and lactation, and nursing demands placed on dams are each associated with alterations in the expression of ultradian and circadian locomotor rhythms. Diminution of CRs and augmentation of URs may afford greater behavioral flexibility during life stages when interactions with mates and offspring are less predictable.

Arousal state feedback as a potential physiological generator of the ultradian REM/NREM sleep cycle

Daily changes in cognitive performance have been documented, both in time of day/effect paradigm studies and in time‐isolation studies. However, in both types of studies, phenomena such as the “post‐lunch dip” have been found that were difficult to explain in terms of theoretical backgrounds. These phenomena may suggest ultradian rhythms in cognitive performance. A number of studies have also shown ultradian and asymmetric rhythms in activity indices of the brain hemispheres. The aim of this study was to test three hypotheses: the first two assumed that there is a significant ultradian frequency in a component of the endogenous rhythm of processing speed, and the third assumed that the ultradian endogenous rhythms of the processing speed (encoding and recognition) of stimuli addressed to the left brain hemisphere differ in period length from those addressed to right hemisphere. During a 24 h constant‐routine experiment, the memory performance of 30 participants was measured eight times (every 2.5–3 h), starting at 06:30 h. Parallel sets of words and pictures were shown to subjects in a random order in either the left or the right visual field on a computer screen. The participants pressed one of two buttons in response to the picture or word, or when answering a question concerning the meaning of a presented stimulus. Cosinor analysis was applied to individual time series data. Two significant ultradian components were found in a majority of the time series. Dominant periods were analyzed using three factor ANOVA. The results showed an asymmetry between both hemispheres in the frequency of ultradian rhythms in encoding speed.

Age-related changes in the activity of cerebral rhodanese in mice during the first four months of life

Total sleep deprivation, chronic sleep restriction and sleep disruption

Short-term recovery sleep attenuates the impairment of response inhibition after total sleep deprivation: Evidence from an event-related potentials study.

Living systems exhibit non-randomly organized biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes that follow distinctive patterns. In particular, animal behavior displays both fractal dynamics and periodic rhythms yet the relationship between these two dynamic regimens remain unexplored. Herein we studied locomotor time series of visually isolated Japanese quails sampled every 0.5 s during 6.5 days (>106 data points). These high-resolution, week-long, time series enabled simultaneous evaluation of ultradian rhythms as well as fractal organization according to six different analytical methods that included Power Spectrum, Enright, Empirical Mode Decomposition, Wavelet, and Detrended Fluctuation analyses. Time series analyses showed that all birds exhibit circadian rhythms. Although interindividual differences were detected, animals presented ultradian behavioral rhythms of 12, 8, 6, 4.8, 4 h and/or lower and, irrespective of visual isolation, synchronization between these ultradian rhythms was observed. Moreover, all birds presented similar overall fractal dynamics (for scales ∼30 s to >4.4 h). This is the first demonstration that avian behavior presents fractal organization that predominates at shorter time scales and coexists with synchronized ultradian rhythms. This chronobiological pattern is advantageous for keeping the organism’s endogenous rhythms in phase with internal and environmental periodicities, notably the feeding, light-dark and sleep-wake cycles.

Alterations in circadian and ultradian cardiovascular rhythms in children with chronic renal failure

An ultradian rhythm in adrenal secretion of corticosterone has been described in awake rats using intra-adrenal microdialysis. To determine the role of the autonomic innervation of the adrenal on the expression of the corticosterone rhythm, adrenal extracellular fluid was sampled by intra-adrenal microdialysis in intact (CTRL) and splanchnicectomized (SPLNX) rats 5-7 h before (light period) and after dark onset (dark period). Experiments conducted 1, 2, or 5 days after surgical insertion of the microdialysis probe consisted of continuous collection of dialysate at intervals of 10 min. Time domain pulse detection using PC-PULSAR showed that 5 days after surgery, SPLNX decreased interpulse interval (IPI) during the light period, but had no effect during the dark period, resulting in the loss of the diurnal rhythm in corticosterone secretion. Although diurnal modulation of both pulse amplitude and pulse frequency was observed, only the frequency was altered by SPLNX. In CTRL animals IPI increased at 5 days postsurgery, relative to 1 and 2 days, but the amplitude of normalized secretory pulses did not change. The decrease in IPI caused by SPLNX was observed 5 days, but not 1 or 2 days after surgery, suggesting that surgical stress obscures the inhibitory effect of splanchnic neural activity. Power spectral analysis showed significant periodicities in corticosterone secretion rate in individual CTRL and SPLNX animals at 1, 2, and 5 days. One day after surgery, SPLNX reduced the frequency of the ultradian rhythm detected by power spectral analysis. This finding suggests that splanchnic neural activity may increase pulse frequency in stressed rats, in opposition to the effect seen after extended recovery from surgery. In conclusion, our data suggest that the nadir of the diurnal rhythm in corticosterone secretion results in part from neural inhibitory control. Splanchnic neural innervation may also have an excitatory role in the adrenocortical stress response.

Prolonged sleep deprivation of the rat produces a progressive increase in energy expenditure and an eventual decrease in body temperature, which suggests a profound derangement in thermoregulation. Because increased thermogenic activity in brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a likely mechanism mediating the observed increase in energy expenditure, we focused our attention on the effect of total sleep deprivation on BAT type II 5'-deiodinase (5'D-II), since its activation indicates BAT stimulation and is essential for full BAT thermogenic response. Five euthyroid rats were subjected to total (92%) sleep deprivation (euD-rats). Sharing the sleep deprivation apparatus, yoked control rats (euC-rats) received the same degree of physical stimulation as the D-rats, but were only partially (25%) sleep deprived. Additional cage controls (euCC-rats) were housed in the same room. Since during sleep deprivation the animals undergo a reduction in plasma T4 concentration and inability to maintain body temperature heralds death, an identical study was performed in five trios of hyperthyroid rats (hyperD-, hyperC-, and hyper CC-rats) given daily ip injections of 15 micrograms T4/100 g BW, 10 days before and throughout the deprivation period. Experiments were carried out at an ambient temperature of 29 C, close to thermoneutrality for rats. Sleep deprivation in hyperD-rats was maintained until death seemed imminent (9-14 days), and in euD-rats for 12-15 days. Sleep deprivation induced a significant increase in BAT 5'D-II activity in both hyperD- and euD-rats compared with that in euCC-rats (P less than 0.01). BAT 5'D-II in euC-rats was also significantly higher than that in euCC-rats (P less than 0.05), probably because they were partially sleep deprived. BAT 5'D-II activity in hyperD-rats was increased compared to that in both hyperC- and hyperCC-rats (P less than 0.05), in which the activity was slightly but not significantly lower than that in euCC-rats. No significant differences were observed in liver and kidney type I 5'-D (5'D-I) and in pituitary 5'D-II among euD-rats, euC-rats, and euCC-rats. As expected, the hyperthyroid groups (hyperD-rats, hyperC-rats, and hyperCC-rats) had significantly higher kidney 5'D-I and lower pituitary 5'D-II than the euCC-rats. Liver 5'D-I was also significantly increased in the hyperC-rats and hyperCC-rats, but not in the hyperD-rats. These observations indicate that total sleep deprivation is associated with a marked increase in BAT 5'D-II activity in both euthyroid and hyperthyroid rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Effect of one night of sleep loss on changes in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) levels in healthy men

Circadian and ultradian rhythms of plasma cortisol concentrations have been documented under physiological conditions in diverse animal species. Using a novel, biophysical convolution model to remove subject-specific metabolic clearance rates, we have now estimated spontaneous adrenal secretory events in vivo. The latter were characterized by prominent ultradian rhythms of discrete secretory bursts with periodicities averaging 32, 46, 76, and 130 min. These ultradian cortisol secretory rhythms represented a 17- to 240-fold larger fraction of circadian secretory variations than did cortisol concentration rhythms. We conclude that deconvolution analysis can unmask underlying ultradian rhythms in adrenal secretory activity in vivo.

Differential effects of total and partial sleep deprivation on salivary factors in Wistar rats

KLEITMAN has postulated that a ‘basic rest-activity cycle’ exists which is an extension of the rhythmically recurring patterns of sleep cycles in man1. Such ultradian rhythms, with a periodicity of approximately 90 min in non-human primates, have been associated with motor activity2 and feeding behaviour3. Additionally, we have reported that plasma cortisol secretion in the rhesus monkey occurred in 90-min cycles which were synchronised for an entire group of monkeys over a 6-mth period, despite individual housing conditions of the animals4. Plasma noradrenaline (NA) is a reliable indicator of sympathetic nervous system activity5, in part because of its short half life of less than 2 min6. If Kleitman's hypothesis is correct, one might expect to see a basic 90-min rhythm for plasma NA, even though its short half life would favour the finding of a much faster rhythm. We have found a 90-min rhythm for plasma NA in the rhesus monkey, which was temporally synchronised for the experimental group as a whole. The presence of this rhythm suggests a tonic waxing and waning of sympathetic nervous system activity compatible with Kleitman's hypothesis.

Sleep Deprivation Disrupts Recall of Conditioned Fear Extinction