O060 The relationship between sleep and appetitive conditioning: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Appetitive conditioning involves learning to associate previously neutral stimuli with pleasant or rewarding cues. Elements of appetitive conditioning underpin various maladaptive consummatory behaviours, including regular consumption of unhealthy foods, recreational substance use, and clinical symptoms of certain mental disorders (e.g., binge-eating disorder, substance use disorder). One modifiable mechanism underlying appetitive conditioning appears to be sleep, due to its critical role in new learning. This systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO registration: CRD42021234793) examined the relationship between sleep and appetitive conditioning. Inclusion criteria included: a) appetitive conditioning paradigm; b) measure of conditioning; c) sleep measurement and/or sleep loss; and d) written in English. Searches of seven databases returned 3343 publications as of March 2022. The final sample consisted of 40 studies using animal models. No human studies were identified. We found: a) sleep loss interfered with appetitive conditioning tasks involving natural reinforcers (i.e., food; p < 0.001); b) tasks involving drug reinforcers showed potentiating effects of sleep loss (p < 0.001); c) extinction learning was negatively impacted by sleep loss, irrespective of reinforcer; and d) post-learning sleep was associated with increases in REM sleep (p = 0.02). Findings suggest sleep loss potentiates the impact of psychoactive substances to produce an increased risk of problematic substance use. This indicates sleep may be an important target in treating substance use disorders. In obese/overweight populations sleep loss may be associated with deficits in the conditioning and extinction of reward behaviours. Further research is needed to assess the relationship between sleep and appetitive conditioning in humans.