Dardo Tomasi1, Ruiliang L. Wang1, Frank Telang1, Vasilios Boronikolas1, Millard C. Jayne1, Gene-Jack Wang1, Elisabeth C. Caparelli1, Joanna S. Fowler1, Nora D. Volkow2
1Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA; 2National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Sleep deprivation (SD) increases dopamine (DA), and reduces accuracy and activation responses during working memory (WM) tasks. We studied the effect of SD on fMRI activation using a verbal n-back WM task, and on DA D2 receptors (D2R) with PET and 11C-raclopride. We show that D2R in the striatum and BOLD responses in the WM network are correlated during SD (but not during rested wakefulness), suggesting that, DA modulates activation in these cortical regions. Together these findings suggest involvement of dopamine in the adaptation responses to maintain cognitive performance under conditions of SD.