Cognitive vulnerability to sleep deprivation is robustly associated with two dynamic connectivity states

Robustly linking dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) states to behaviour is an important goal of the fledgling research using these methods. Here, we demonstrate in an independent dataset that two connectivity states previously linked to arousal and sustained attention are associated with individual differences in vulnerability to sleep deprivation. 32 healthy participants underwent two sets of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, once in a well-rested state and once after a single night of total sleep deprivation. Individual differences in vulnerability to this manipulation were measured using changes in Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) performance. DFC and clustering analysis on the resting state fMRI data revealed five centroids that were highly correlated with those found in previous work, including two states associated with high and low arousal. Changes in these arousal states from the well-rested to the sleep-deprived condition specifically were correlated with changes in PVT performance. Global signal was also correlated with this change in univariate analysis, but was not a significant incremental predictor in a multivariate model. Although head motion increased following sleep deprivation, this did not predict change in PVT performance. Our results provide good evidence of the reliability, validity, and reproducibility of DFC measures, particularly with regard to measuring arousal and attention.