Sleep Restriction Effects on a Robotic Guided Motor Task

Acute sleep deprivation affects negatively cognitive and motor tasks such as postural control, but less results have been presented about the effects of sleep conditions on other motor tasks, such as the bimanual guidance of a handlebar. The design of an instrumented robotic handlebar is presented along with a motor control test aimed at evaluating sleep effects on task performance. The actuated handlebar is able to register the forces and the movement synchronized with a display that shows targets to be reached with the handlebar. Prior to tests, ten health subjects answered to questionnaires in order to access their sleep parameters. The participant’s performance data (spatial accuracy, reaction time and time to reach the target) was compared in terms of the sleep assessment outcomes. We observed an association between the total sleep time and the time of reach, which is very similar to the observed in Psychomotor Vigilance Tests in subjects who not slept enough. In this way, this handlebar test appears to be a useful tool to detect impairments resulting from sleep disturbances. However, authors point out to the need of further studies.