# Decline of long-range temporal correlations in the human brain during sustained wakefulness

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03835 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03835/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jun 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Neural timescales from a computational perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02684/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Sleep is crucial for daytime functioning, cognitive performance and general well-being. These aspects of daily life are known to be impaired after extended wake, yet, the underlying neuronal correlates have been difficult to identify. Accumulating evidence suggests that normal functioning of the brain is characterized by long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs) in cortex, which are supportive for decision-making and working memory tasks. Here we assess LRTCs in resting state human EEG data during a 40-hour sleep deprivation experiment by evaluating the decay in autocorrelation and the scaling exponent of the detrended fluctuation analysis from EEG amplitude fluctuations. We find with both measures that LRTCs decline as sleep deprivation progresses. This decline becomes evident when taking changes in signal power into appropriate consideration. Our results demonstrate the importance of sleep to maintain LRTCs in the human brain. In complex networks, LRTCs naturally emerge in the vicinity of a critical state. The observation of declining LRTCs during wake thus provides additional support for our hypothesis that sleep reorganizes cortical networks towards critical dynamics for optimal functioning.