Impact of sleep deprivation on dynamic functional connectivity states.

Sleep deprivation (SD) is an experimental procedure to study the effects of sleep loss on the human brain. Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), have been pivotal in studying these effects. The present chapter aims to retrace the state of the art regarding the literature that examines the SD effects on the brain through functional connectivity (FC) evaluated in fMRI and EEG settings, separately. Specifically, we focused on the cognitive domains mainly affected by sleep loss and the underlying brain connectivity alterations. SD disrupts homeostatic and circadian processes, negatively affecting cognitive and cerebral functionality explored through FC. All evidence confirms the detrimental role of SD on brain connectivity impacting several resting-state networks and resulting in cognitive impairments. To conclude, SD may offer useful insights into pathogenic mechanisms likely resembling those induced by chronic sleep loss that might find their application in the clinical context.