Fig. 2: Pulsatile CSF flow dynamics increase during epochs with slower reaction times and attentional failures.
a, Reaction times after sleep deprivation showed a higher mean and a longer tail, indicating more behavioral lapses (N = 26 participants; shading represents standard error across participants; z = –25.08, P < 0.0001; data were analyzed by two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test). b, Omission rate increased after sleep deprivation (N = 26 participants, t25 = –7.00, P = 2.43 × 10−6; data were analyzed by paired two-tailed t-test). c, CSF flow and reaction time fluctuations during one example run, showing higher flow when reaction time slows down. d, Low-frequency (0.01–0.1 Hz) CSF power within nonoverlapping 60 s segments, categorized into three different states: high attention (all reaction times below 500 ms), low attention (at least one reaction time > 500 ms) and omissions (at least one omission). Higher CSF power appears in lower attentional states (two-tailed repeated measures ANOVA and a Tukey post hoc test; F2,50 = 62.04, P = 5.49 × 10−5 for main effect, N = 26 participants). e, Low-frequency (0.01–0.1 Hz) gray matter BOLD power within nonoverlapping 60-s segments, following the same analysis as in d. Higher gray matter BOLD power appears in lower attentional states (two-tailed repeated measures ANOVA and a Tukey post hoc test; F2,50 = 24.82, P < 0.0001 for main effect, N = 26 participants). Box plots show the mean (center), the boxes represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, and whiskers indicate minimum to maximum.
