Understanding the cognitive and neuroimaging bases underlying the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on reciprocity

Summary: Although the impact of sleep loss on social behaviors has been widely observed in recent years, the mechanisms underpinning these impacts remain unclear. In this study, we explored the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on reciprocity behavior as well as its underlying psychological and neuroimaging mechanisms by combining sleep manipulation, an interpersonal interactive game, computational modeling and neuroimaging. Our results suggested that after sleep deprivation, individuals showed reduced reciprocity behavior, mainly due to their reduced weights on communal concern when making social decisions. At neural level, we demonstrated that sleep deprivation’s effects were observed in the precuneus (hyperactivity) and temporoparietal junction, dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (both hypoactivity), and reduced reciprocity was also accounted for by increased precuneus-thalamus connectivity and DLPFC-thalamus connectivity. Our findings contributed to the understanding of the psychological and neuroimaging bases underlying the deleterious impact of sleep deprivation on social behaviors.