Alteration in neural oscillatory activity and phase‐amplitude coupling after sleep deprivation: Evidence for impairment and compensation effects

Summary Insufficient sleep can significantly affect vigilance and increase slow‐wave electroencephalographic power as homeostatic sleep pressure accumulates. Phase‐amplitude coupling is involved in regulating the spatiotemporal integration of physiological processes. This study aimed to examine the functional associations of resting‐state electroencephalographic power and delta/theta‐gamma phase‐amplitude coupling from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to posterior regions with vigilance performance after sleep deprivation. Forty‐six healthy adults underwent 24‐hr sleep deprivation with resting‐state electroencephalographic recordings, and vigilant attention was measured using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task. Power spectral and phase‐amplitude coupling analyses were conducted, and correlation analysis was utilized to reveal the relationship between electroencephalographic patterns and changes in vigilance resulting from sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation significantly declined vigilance performance, accompanied by increased resting‐state electroencephalographic power in all bands and delta/theta‐gamma phase‐amplitude coupling. The increased theta activity in centro‐parieto‐occipital areas significantly correlated with decreased mean and slowest response speed. Conversely, the increased delta‐low gamma and theta‐high gamma phase‐amplitude couplings negatively correlated with the deceleration of the fastest Psychomotor Vigilance Task reaction times. These findings suggest that sleep deprivation affects vigilance by altering electroencephalographic spectral power and information communication across frequency bands in different brain regions. The distinct effects of increased theta power and delta/theta‐gamma phase‐amplitude coupling might reflect the impairment and compensation of sleep deprivation on vigilance performance, respectively.