Exploration of Sleep Deprivation in Mouse Model Using an Effort-Based Discounting Task
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Date
2025-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The necessity of getting adequate and consistent sleep for health is well recognized. However, many individuals fail to achieve this. Studies indicate a growing prevalence of sleep deprivation, causing it to become one of the leading reasons for visiting sleep clinics. While much of the existing literature focuses on cognitive outcomes like attention and memory, there is a notable gap in understanding how sleep deprivation affects motivation, particularly from the perspective of effort expenditure. To address this gap, we investigated the impact of gentle handling sleep deprivation on performance on the Effort Discounting Task (EDT). This is a behavioral test used to assess motivation through effort expenditure. Two experimental groups of 8 male and 8 female C57BL/6 mice each (total n=32) were tested on this task. We hypothesized that sleep- deprived mice would show reduced effort expenditure and hence decreased motivation. Contrary to our hypothesis, mice showed increased motivation after sleep deprivation. Additional experimentation yielded an effect of behavioral testing time on task performance. Further investigation is necessary to determine the effects of sleep deprivation on effort expenditure.
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Keywords
sleep deprivation, effort discounting task, operant behavior, c57bl/6, motivation, decision-making