Research reportSleep deprivation impairs performance in the 5-choice continuous performance test: Similarities between humans and mice

•The 5-choice continuous performance test assesses attention across species.•36 h total sleep deprivation impairs attentional performance in humans.•36 h REM sleep deprivation impairs performance in mice similarly.•The 5C-CPT may be used to test putative cognitive enhancers after sleep deprivation.

Several groups undergo extended periods without sleep due to working conditions or mental illness. Such sleep deprivation (SD) can deleteriously affect attentional processes and disrupt work and family functioning. Understanding the biological underpinnings of SD effects may assist in developing sleep therapies and cognitive enhancers. Utilizing cross-species tests of attentional processing in humans and rodents would aid in mechanistic studies examining SD-induced inattention. We assessed the effects of 36 h of: (1) Total SD (TSD) in healthy male and female humans (n = 50); and (2) REM SD (RSD) in male C57BL/6 mice (n = 26) on performance in the cross-species 5-choice continuous performance test (5C-CPT). The 5C-CPT includes target trials on which subjects were required to respond and non-target trials on which subjects were required to inhibit from responding. TSD-induced effects on human psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) were also examined. Effects of SD were also examined on mice split into good and poor performance groups based on pre-deprivation scores. In the human 5C-CPT, TSD decreased hit rate and vigilance with trend-level effects on accuracy. In the PVT, TSD slowed response times and increased lapses. In the mouse 5C-CPT, RSD reduced accuracy and hit rate with trend-level effects on vigilance, primarily in good performers. In conclusion, SD induced impaired 5C-CPT performance in both humans and mice and validates the 5C-CPT as a cross-species translational task. The 5C-CPT can be used to examine mechanisms underlying SD-induced deficits in vigilance and assist in testing putative cognitive enhancers.