Variability of Electrophysiological and Neurobehavioral Measures of Alertness in Women and Men

The routine requirement of continuous manning in the armed forces means military personnel must frequently perform their jobs for extended periods, at all hours of the day and night, often under monotonous conditions. Much research has shown that such working conditions often produce fatigue, decreased alertness, and compromised performance. As various military operations increasingly involve women there is a need to identify and characterize any gender-related differences in the pattern and dynamics of alertness and performance decrements caused by night work and sleep loss. This study addressed whether men and women show dissimilar patterns of fatigue-related performance decrements. Neurobehavioral and/or electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of alertness and performance were collected in 32 women and 24 men during a night of sleep deprivation. Detailed between-gender comparisons were made of the neurobehavioral measures of low alertness, including patterns of response rate, accuracy, and lapse probability. Gender variability was also explicitly examined in similar neurobehavioral measures previously collected in a series of lengthy sleep deprivation/restriction protocols. Results from both sets of investigations failed to detect any reliable differences in cognitive performance and alertness between men and women as a function of sleep loss. Although there appear to be some gender-related response style differences, the present data do not support distinguishing between men and women in their ability to withstand the effects of sleep deprivation. The EEG data analysis is ongoing and will be described in subsequent reports.Naval Health Research Center San Diego CA is the author of 'Variability of Electrophysiological and Neurobehavioral Measures of Alertness in Women and Men', published 1997 under ISBN 9781423565789 and ISBN 1423565789.