Abstract
Chronotype refers to the time of day preferred by individuals to perform daily activities according to their circadian rhythm. We asked whether synchrony effects, that is, the difference in performance between the optimal and non-optimal time of day as a function of chronotype, are observed in two tasks that differently involve the endogenous component of the alerting network, the psychomotor visual task (PVT) and the flanker task. From an initial sample of 132 students that filled in the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), 18 were classified as Morning-types and 16 as Evening-types. Evening-types showed synchrony effects in both tasks, whereas Morning-types failed to show synchrony effects in the flanker task and when the PVT was first performed at the non-optimal time of day. Thus, Morning-types might have seen increased their vigilant attention at their non-optimal time of day due to the cognitive demands of the flanker task and to the novelty with the PVT. Phasic alerting generated by alerting tones increased conflict score in the flanker task, but time of day did not modulate the congruence effect. Chronotype determines vigilant attention more decisively in Evening-types than in Morning-types individuals. Also, exogenous but not endogenous alerting exerts a deleterious effect on conflict resolution.
Highlights
Chronotype refers to the time of day preferred by individuals to perform daily activities according to their circadian rhythm
Previous findings have reported no differences in flanker interference due to the endogenous component of the alerting network either when tonic alerting is promoted throughout the whole task[46] or as a function of chronotype and time of testing[47,48]. These results suggest that the endogenous component of the alerting network has influence in spatial orientation but not in how people deal with cognitive conflict in the flanker task
We first asked whether synchrony effects, that is, the difference in performance between the optimal and non-optimal time of day as a function of chronotype, are observed in two tasks that differently involve the endogenous component of the alerting network, the psychomotor visual task (PVT) and the flanker tasks
Summary
Chronotype refers to the time of day preferred by individuals to perform daily activities according to their circadian rhythm. We asked whether synchrony effects, that is, the difference in performance between the optimal and non-optimal time of day as a function of chronotype, are observed in two tasks that differently involve the endogenous component of the alerting network, the psychomotor visual task (PVT) and the flanker task. Tonic alertness develops slower and refers to the ability to maintain attention for rather long periods of time-on-task, sometimes at the scale of hours This endogenous component is activated when the task is rather monotonous and tedious, usually because it does not require strong perceptual, cognitive, or motoric demands to be performed (examples of laboratory tasks with these characteristics are the psychomotor visual test, PVT; the continuous performance test, CPT; and the sustained attention to response task, SART). The efficiency of the circadian system always depends on the conjunction of physiology and behavior of the organism[20]
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