Hengyi Rao1,2, Julian Lim2, John A. Detre1, Wenchau Wu1, David F. Dinges2
1Center for Functional Neuroimaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Recent literature has suggested large and reliable inter-individual differences in responses to sleep deprivation. Using ASL perfusion fMRI, the present study examined the effects of 24hr of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on resting cerebral blow flow (CBF) in 20 normal subjects with differential vulnerability. TSD did not alter global CBF, but did induce significant regional CBF changes in multiple brain regions in high-vulnerable subjects and much less change in low-vulnerable subjects. These data suggest that differential effects of sleep deprivation on resting CBF may underlie the trait-like inter-individual differences in sleep deprivation vulnerability.