SynthesisSleep2015
How acute total sleep loss affects the attending brain: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.
Synthesis in Sleep, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 241 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain connectivity changes associated with acute sleep deprivation: a systematic review.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- Distinct Convergent Brain Alterations in Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: A Meta-Analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Comparison of resting-state brain activity between insomnia and generalized anxiety disorder: A coordinate-based meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of sleep restriction on cognitive performance in elite cognitive performers: a systematic review.Sleep · 2021Pooled it
- Regions of the brain activated in bladder filling vs rectal distention in healthy adults: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.Neurourology and urodynamics · 2020Pooled it
- Functional brain alterations in acute sleep deprivation: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Sleep medicine reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Brain activation during the voiding phase of micturition in healthy adults: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.Clinical anatomy (New York, N.Y.) · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- The effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions in young adults with and without ADHD.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Gender-related difference in altered fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations after electroacupuncture on primary insomnia patients: A resting-state fMRI study.Brain and behavior · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Effects of COMT genotype and tolcapone on lapses of sustained attention after sleep deprivation in healthy young men.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- β-Amyloid accumulation in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Overnight sleep features and next-morning brain metabolism in older adults.Sleep medicine · 2026Article
- Increased p-Tau181 Levels After Overnight Wakefulness Are Associated With Neuroticism in Young Women.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Hierarchical structural-functional coupling reorganization after acute sleep deprivation: Links to spatial working memory and lateralization.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- A neural signature of sleep deprivation in the human brain.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sleep and Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction.Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Article
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesAttention is a cognitive domain that can be severely affected by sleep deprivation. Previous neuroimaging studies have used different attention paradigms and reported both increased and reduced brain activation after sleep deprivation. However, due to large variability in sleep deprivation protocols, task paradigms, experimental designs, characteristics of subject populations, and imaging techniques, there is no consensus regarding the effects of sleep loss on the attending brain. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify brain activations that are commonly altered by acute total sleep deprivation across different attention tasks.
designCoordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of performance on attention tasks during experimental sleep deprivation.
methodsThe current version of the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach was used for meta-analysis. The authors searched published articles and identified 11 sleep deprivation neuroimaging studies using different attention tasks with a total of 185 participants, equaling 81 foci for ALE analysis.
resultsThe meta-analysis revealed significantly reduced brain activation in multiple regions following sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness, including bilateral intraparietal sulcus, bilateral insula, right prefrontal cortex, medial frontal cortex, and right parahippocampal gyrus. Increased activation was found only in bilateral thalamus after sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness.
conclusionAcute total sleep deprivation decreases brain activation in the fronto-parietal attention network (prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus) and in the salience network (insula and medial frontal cortex). Increased thalamic activation after sleep deprivation may reflect a complex interaction between the de-arousing effects of sleep loss and the arousing effects of task performance on thalamic activity.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.