0211 Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Task Performance Following Chronic Sleep Restriction in Wistar Han and Sprague Dawley Rats

The relationship between chronic sleep restriction and performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) has been well documented in human literature with chronic sleep restriction as little as 7 hours per night resulting in significant impairment in PVT performance. However, there is considerable variability in individual responses to sleep deprivation that potentially correspond to genetic differences. Recently, an analogous version of the PVT has been developed for use with rodent models (rPVT). The purpose of this study is to compare performance on the rPVT following chronic restriction in Wistar Han (WH) and Sprague Dawley (SD) rats, two rat strains commonly used for behavioral testing. After meeting baseline criterion on the rPVT, WH (n=7) and SD (n=7) rats were subjected to 6hr/day sleep restriction in forced exercise wheels for one week. Performance on the rPVT was measured daily at 1500. Data indicates WH rats show more prominent impairment in rPVT performance following sleep restriction compared to SD rats. WH rats show increased reaction times and decreased accuracy while SD rats show little to no change performance following chronic sleep restriction. The results of this study suggest that SD rats may be more resilient to the effects of sleep loss on vigilant attention measured via the rPVT than WH rats. These results have significant implications for the choice of strain when conducting behavioral tasks following sleep restriction as well as implications for research concerning genetic differences underlying resiliency to sleep loss. Future research on this topic in our laboratory will explore the distinct genetic differences between these strains and others to provide further insight into the relationship between genetics, sleep loss, and cognitive performance. N/A