Figure 6.

The impact of sleep deprivation on emotional brain reactivity and functional connectivity. a) Amygdala response to increasingly negative emotional stimuli in the Sleep deprivation and Sleep control groups, and b) Corresponding differences in intensity and volumetric extent of amygdala activation between the two groups (average ± s.e.m. of left and right amygdala), c) Depiction of associated changes in functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the amygdala. With sleep, the prefrontal lobe was strongly connected to the amygdala, regulating and exerting and inhibitory top-down control, d) Without sleep, however, amygdala-mPFC connectivity was decreased, potentially negating top-down control and resulting in an overactive amygdala.

*p < .01; error bars indicate s.e.m. (Modified from Yoo, Gujar, et al., 2007).