Abstract
Time of day modulates our cognitive functions, especially those related to executive control, such as the ability to inhibit inappropriate responses. However, the impact of individual differences in time of day preferences (i.e. morning vs. evening chronotype) had not been considered by most studies. It was also unclear whether the vigilance decrement (impaired performance with time on task) depends on both time of day and chronotype. In this study, morning-type and evening-type participants performed a task measuring vigilance and response inhibition (the Sustained Attention to Response Task, SART) in morning and evening sessions. The results showed that the vigilance decrement in inhibitory performance was accentuated at non-optimal as compared to optimal times of day. In the morning-type group, inhibition performance decreased linearly with time on task only in the evening session, whereas in the morning session it remained more accurate and stable over time. In contrast, inhibition performance in the evening-type group showed a linear vigilance decrement in the morning session, whereas in the evening session the vigilance decrement was attenuated, following a quadratic trend. Our findings imply that the negative effects of time on task in executive control can be prevented by scheduling cognitive tasks at the optimal time of day according to specific circadian profiles of individuals. Therefore, time of day and chronotype influences should be considered in research and clinical studies as well as real-word situations demanding executive control for response inhibition.
Highlights
Maintaining attention to the task at hand over an extended time period can be crucial in many situations
Chronotype groups differed in time awake before the evening session, F (1, 25) = 4.16, p = .05, with more awake hours in morning-type (M = 11.88, SD = 0.41) relative to evening-type group (M = 10.71, SD = 0.40), but no differences were found for the morning session (F,1)
The main aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of both time of day and circadian typology on the vigilance decrement in inhibitory control during a modified version of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) [12]
Summary
Maintaining attention to the task at hand over an extended time period (i.e., vigilance) can be crucial in many situations. Research on vigilance has reported a drop-off in performance as time on task increases, the so-called vigilance decrement [1]. Time of day further influences higher-order cognitive functions, as indexed by behavioural and neural measures related to executive control [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Executive control is typically engaged in novel or complex situations to adapt our behaviour for optimal performance (e.g. inhibiting routine responses when they are inappropriate) [11]. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) [12] measures the ability to sustain executive control for response inhibition over a given period of time. Successful response inhibition to infrequent no-go trials demands prolonged attention during task [12]
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