The effects of total sleep deprivation on semantic priming: Event-related potential evidence for automatic and controlled processing strategies

The effects of total sleep deprivation on a semantic word priming task. The usual priming effects were found both following normal sleep and following sleep deprivation. Thus, reaction time was faster and accuracy higher for targets that were strongly associated with the prime. The amplitude of an N400 varied inversely with the extent of association between the prime word and the target in both the normal sleep and sleep deprivation conditions. The N400 differences are consistent with the use of different cognitive strategies. After normal sleep, the subject might use an effortful strategy to predict possible semantic targets following presentation of the prime. On the other hand, after sleep deprivation, the subject might rely on an effortless, automatic search of the semantic network, thus permitting the maintenance of performance.83