Impact of brain arousal and time-on-task on autonomic nervous system activity in the wake-sleep transition
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity has been shown to vary with the state of brain arousal. In a previous study, this association of ANS activity with distinct states of brain arousal was demonstrated using 15-min EEG data, but without directly controlling for possible time-on-task effects. In the current study we examine ANS-activity in fine-graded EEG-vigilance stages (indicating states of brain arousal) during two conditions of a 2-h oddball task while controlling for time-on-task. In addition, we analyze the effect of time-on-task on ANS-activity while holding the level of brain arousal constant. METHODS: Heart rate and skin conductance level of healthy participants were recorded during a 2-h EEG with eyes closed under simultaneous presentation of stimuli in an ignored (N = 39) and attended (N = 39) oddball condition. EEG-vigilance stages were classified using the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig (VIGALL 2.1). The time-on-task effect was tested by dividing the EEG into four 30-min consecutive time blocks. ANS-activity was compared between EEG-vigilance stages across the entire 2 h and within each time block. RESULTS: We found a coherent decline of ANS-activity with declining brain arousal states, over the 2-h recording and in most cases within each 30-min block in both conditions. Furthermore, we found a significant time-on-task effect on heart rate, even when arousal was kept constant. It was most pronounced between the first and all subsequent blocks and could have been a consequence of postural change at the beginning of the experiment. CONCLUSION: Our findings contribute to the validation of VIGALL 2.1 using ANS parameters in 2-h EEG recording under oddball conditions.
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Huang et al. (2018) found that a reduction of ANS activity (reflected in reduced mean HR and SCL over time) paralleled the decrease in vigilance and wakefulness before sleep onset.
“Huang et al. (2018) instead focused on the period before sleep onset and found that a reduction of activity of the ANS (reflected in reduced mean HR and SCL over time) paralleled the decrease in vigilance and wakefulness before sleep onset, calculated through an EEG-based algorithm.”
From Is autonomic nervous system function atypical in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? A systematic review of the evidence (2020) · cites this paper as Huang et al. (2018)
The Discussion reports that HR and SCL decreased across lower EEG-vigilance stages during the two-hour recording, supporting the claimed parallel decline. But it also reports no time-on-task effect on SCL and a numerical increase in SCL across time blocks. Thus, the claim that both measures fell over time overstates the findings. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Basic Anatomy: Peripheral Nervous System
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- Authors
- Huang, J., Ulke, C., Sander, C., Jawinski, P., Spada, J., Hegerl, U., & Hensch, T.
- Affiliations
- Leipzig University (DE)
- Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Huang, Jue
- Venue
- BMC Neuroscience
- Published
- 2018-04-11
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 18-18
- ISSN
- 1471-2202 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5896037
- OpenAlex
- W2803917681
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 4.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Deutsche Bahn
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Keywords
- autonomic nervous system activity, brain arousal, time-on-task effects, wake-sleep transition, heart rate, skin conductance level, oddball paradigm, sustained attention
- MeSH terms
- Autonomic Nervous System, Brain, Electroencephalography, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Sleep, Time Factors, Wakefulness
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