Executive Function in Sleep Apnea: Controlling for Attentional Capacity in Assessing Executive Attention

Abstract

In addition to vigilance decrements, attentional capacity deficits clearly emerge, ie, slowed information processing and decreased short-term memory span. However, no specific clinical indications for executive attentional deficits--such as disinhibition, distractibility, perseveration, attentional switching dysfunction, decreased design fluency, or an impaired central executive of working memory--are found in patients with severe sleep apnea. Their cognitive performance seems very similar to the cognitive decline found after sleep loss and qualitatively different from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, suggesting sleepiness as the primary factor in a parsimonious explanation for the attention deficits in sleep apnea, without the need to assume prefrontal brain damage.