Effect of homeostatic pressure and circadian arousal on the storage and executive components of working memory: Evidence from EEG power spectrum

Abstract

Diurnal fluctuations in working memory (WM) performance, characterized by task-specific peaks and troughs, are likely attributed to the differential regulation of WM subcomponents by interactions between circadian and homeostatic processes. The current study aimed to investigate the independent effects of circadian and homeostatic processes on the storage and executive subcomponents of WM. We assessed the change in frontal-midline theta (FMT) power supporting WM executive component and posterior alpha/beta power supporting WM storage during N-back tasks in the morning, midafternoon with and without a nap from 31 healthy adults. The results suggested that when the accumulated sleep homeostasis was alleviated in the midafternoon by a daytime nap, higher ACC, less number of omissions, and a stronger increase in FMT power from the no nap to nap conditions. Compared to the morning, a stronger decrease in posterior alpha power, and posterior beta power (only in the 3-back task), was observed in the no-nap condition because of circadian arousal regulation. These findings suggest that the circadian process primarily influences the storage aspect of WM supported by posterior alpha and beta activity, while sleep homeostasis has a greater impact on the execution aspect supported by FMT activity.