PVT lapses differ according to eyes open, closed, or looking away.

STUDY OBJECTIVES A lapse during the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) is usually defined as a response longer than 500 ms; however, it is currently unknown what psychobiological phenomena occur during a lapse. An assessment of what a participant is doing during a lapse may depict varying levels of "disengagement" during these events and provide more insight into the measurement of both a lapse and sleepiness. DESIGN Repeated measures. SETTING Participants underwent extended 30-min PVT sessions twice, at 22:00 and 04:00, under: (i) typical non-distractive laboratory conditions, and (ii) an additional distractive condition. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-four healthy young adults (mean age: 23.2 y +/- 2 y; range 21-25 y [12 m; 12 f]) without any sleep or medical problems and without any prior indication of daytime sleepiness. INTERVENTIONS One night of sleep loss. Distraction comprised a TV located at 90 degrees in the visual periphery showing a popular TV program. For the non-distraction condition, the TV was turned off. MEASUREMENTS & RESULTS Video data (bird's-eye and frontal view) were used to classify each lapse (> or = 500 ms) as occurring with eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), or due to a head turn (HT). EO lapses were more prevalent, with all lapses (EO, EC, and HT) increasing with sleepiness. There was a significant effect of distraction for HT lapses which was exacerbated when sleepy. For lapse duration there was little effect of sleepiness for EO lapses but a significant effect for EC and HT. The 95% confidence intervals for lapse duration and associated behavior showed those lapses greater than 2669 ms were 95% likely to be EC, whereas those 500-549 ms were 95% likely to be EO. Response times of 1217 ms had a 50:50 probability of being EO:EC. CONCLUSIONS Discriminating the varying causes of lapses whether due to visual inattention (eyes open), microsleep (eyes closed), or distraction (head turn) may provide further insight into levels of disengagement from the PVT and further insight into developing sleepiness.