ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2024
Prolonged exertion of self-control causes increased sleep-like frontal brain activity and changes in aggressivity and punishment.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of ego depletion phenomenon in group-based hierarchical relations.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of scarcity on women's cognitive ability to manage mental health and substance use after prison release.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Prolonged exertion of self-control causes increased sleep-like frontal brain activity and changes in aggressivity and punishment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Impulsive reactions in social interactions may result in poor or even detrimental outcomes. Particular cognitive states, such as mental fatigue induced by extended practice with cognitively demanding activities, especially if combined with sleep restriction or deprivation, seem to impair the individuals' ability to exert self-control effectively and may result in impulsive behaviors, including aggressive acts. We demonstrate that exertion of self-control for as little as 45 min can lead to an increased propensity for engaging in aggressive acts in the context of socially relevant choices, as measured by a set of economic games. Also, we show that such behavioral changes are associated with increased sleep-like (delta) activity within frontal brain areas related to decision-making and impulse control. The local occurrence of sleep-like slow waves may lead to a disengagement of frontal areas and explain the reduced ability of individuals to exert self-control effectively. Our results suggest that sleep-like activity may emerge within the awake brain within a relatively short time scale, with detectable effects on socially relevant behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.