Previous research has demonstrated that loss of sleep has a negative impact on both emotional and cognitive functioning. We examined whether subjectively reported natural sleep loss is associated with the interplay between emotion and cognition, as was probed by brain activity in response to emotional distraction during a working memory task. Forty-six healthy male adults reported their typical weekly sleep pattern using the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ), while recent sleep loss was enquired using a sleep diary in the 7 days preceding scanning. Participants performed a delayed match-to-sample task with negative and neutral distracters during the delay period inside the MRI scanner. Activity differences between negative and neutral distracters were associated to both sleep loss measures across participants. The amount of typically encountered sleep loss indicated by the MCTQ, but not sleep diary, was negatively associated with activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex during emotionally negative compared to neutral distraction (p < 0.025, whole brain corrected). Participants showed less distracter-related activity in the ACC and dorsomedial PFC with increasing sleep loss, which, in the long run, might contribute to less adaptive emotional processing, and therefore a greater vulnerability to develop affective disorders.

先前的研究表明，睡眠不足会对情绪和认知功能产生负面影响。我们检查了主观报告的自然睡眠不足是否与情绪和认知之间的相互作用有关，正如在工作记忆任务期间响应情绪分心的大脑活动所探讨的那样。46 名健康男性成年人使用慕尼黑时间型问卷 (MCTQ) 报告了他们典型的每周睡眠模式，同时使用扫描前 7 天的睡眠日记询问最近的睡眠不足情况。参与者在 MRI 扫描仪内的延迟期间执行了带有负面和中性干扰物的延迟匹配样本任务。负面干扰者和中性干扰者之间的活动差异与参与者的睡眠损失测量值有关。p < 0.025，全脑校正）。参与者在 ACC 和背内侧 PFC 中表现出较少的与干扰相关的活动，随着睡眠不足的增加，从长远来看，这可能导致适应性情绪处理能力下降，因此更容易发展成情感障碍。