Sleep deprivation reorganizes the dynamic configurations of default mode network activity during recovery sleep

Sleep deprivation causes disturbances of the neural activity, leading to the impairment of brain functions. However, the exact mechanism of sleep deprivation and how it affects the dynamics of brain activity during the recovery sleep remains unclear. In the current study, we performed sleep deprivation experiments on ten adult rats, and recorded the local field potentials from default mode network (DMN) regions during sleep before and after sleep deprivation. The DMN dynamics was assessed with the configurations of coactive micropatterns (CAMPs) using our previously proposed CAMP method. Our analysis revealed that the effects of sleep deprivation on DMN dynamics in the slow-wave sleep (SWS) state and the rapid eye-movement sleep (REM) state were disparate. Dynamic configurations of DMN activity in the SWS state were significantly impaired after sleep deprivation, with increased occurrence of low-activity CAMP and reorganized transition structure across three CAMPs. Moreover, enhanced functional connectivity and improved efficiencies in all CAMP networks were observed during the SWS state in the recovery sleep. However, there were no significant alterations in either DMN dynamics or CAMP network structures in the REM sleep state after sleep deprivation. Our results described the alterations of DMN dynamics in different sleep states after sleep deprivation, and illustrated the differential effects of sleep deprivation on two sleep states. These findings demonstrated the underlying neural mechanisms of the effects of sleep deprivation on DMN activity during sleep and increased our understanding of the physiological roles of the DMN in maintain sleep homeostasis after sleep deprivation.