SELF-MONITORING COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE DURING SLEEP DEPRIVATION: EFFECTS OF MODAFINIL, D-AMPHETAMINE AND PLACEBO
- Authors
- Corporate Authors
- Defence and Civil Inst of Environmental Medicine, Downsview ONT (CAN)
- Abstract
- Self-monitoring refers to the ability to assess accurately one's own performance in a specific environment. The present study investigated the effects of the stimulating drugs modafinil (300 mg) and d-amphetamine (20 mg) on the ability to self-monitoring cognitive performance during 64 h of sleep deprivation (SD) and sustained metal work. Two cognitive tasks were investigated: a visual (perceptual) judgment task and a complex mental addition task. Subjects in the placebo condition displayed marked circadian and SD effects on cognitive task performance but their self-monitoring was substantively undisturbed by SD. Subjects performing under the influence of d-amphetamine likewise displayed highly proficient self-monitoring throughout the SD period. In contrast, modafinil had a disruptive effect on self-monitoring, inducing a reliable 'overconfidence' effect (i.e. an overestimation of actual cognitive performance), which was particularly marked 2-4 h post-dose. Although modafinil has proven to be a safe and effective countermeasure to the effects of extensive SD on cognitive task performance, we encourage a more comprehensive understanding of the relation between its subjective and performance enhancing effects before the drug is recommended as a viable fatigue countermeasure.
- Keywords
- Modafinil;Sustained operations
- Report Number
- DCIEM-96-RP-09 — Research Paper
- Date of publication
- 29 Feb 1996
- Number of Pages
- 8
- Reprinted from
- European Sleep Research Society, J. Sleep Res., vol 6, 1997, p 84-91
- DSTKIM No
- 98-00041
- CANDIS No
- 506697
- Format(s):
- Hardcopy;Document Image stored on Optical Disk
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