Prefrontal Transfer Entropy, But Not Spectral Power, Tracks Preservation of Positive Affect During Sleep Deprivation
Abstract
Objective: Sleep deprivation disrupts emotional functioning, yet individuals vary in their affective vulnerability to sleep loss. The present study examined whether resting-state prefrontal transfer entropy (TE), a measure of complex directed information flow, is associated with affective resilience under sleep deprivation.
Methods: Publicly available EEG data from 33 healthy young adults were analyzed across normal sleep and total sleep deprivation conditions. Eyes-closed resting-state EEG was examined from prefrontal electrodes Fp1, Fp2, and Fpz. Symbolic TE was computed among prefrontal channels and averaged to derive mean pairwise TE. Conventional spectral power metrics were also calculated. Linear mixed-effects models tested whether within-person variation in positive affect was associated with within-person variation in prefrontal TE and spectral power across conditions.
Results: Condition-related change in positive affect was significantly associated with change in mean pairwise TE, such that greater preservation of positive affect under sleep deprivation corresponded with greater increases in prefrontal TE. Within-person positive affect was significantly associated with prefrontal TE, whereas between-person mean positive affect was not significant. In contrast, positive affect was not significantly associated with total power or relative theta, alpha, or beta power.
Conclusions: Resting-state prefrontal TE was associated with state-level preservation of positive affect under sleep deprivation, suggesting that complex prefrontal information flow may index affective resilience under sleep loss.
Significance: These findings support further investigation of EEG-based complex information flow metrics as neurophysiological markers of affective resilience in sleep-deprived and operationally relevant settings.
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BibTeX
@misc{creel2026prefrontal,
title = {{Prefrontal Transfer Entropy, But Not Spectral Power, Tracks Preservation of Positive Affect During Sleep Deprivation}},
author = {William Tanner Creel and Rich Hartman},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/64bqd_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/64bqd_v1/},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Prefrontal Transfer Entropy, But Not Spectral Power, Tracks Preservation of Positive Affect During Sleep Deprivation
AU - William Tanner Creel
AU - Rich Hartman
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/05
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/64bqd_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/64bqd_v1/
AB - Objective: Sleep deprivation disrupts emotional functioning, yet individuals vary in their affective vulnerability to sleep loss. The present study examined whether resting-state prefrontal transfer entropy (TE), a measure of complex directed information flow, is associated with affective resilience under sleep deprivation. Methods: Publicly available EEG data from 33 healthy young adults were analyzed across normal sleep and total sleep deprivation conditions. Eyes-closed resting-state EEG was examined from prefrontal electrodes Fp1, Fp2, and Fpz. Symbolic TE was computed among prefrontal channels and averaged to derive mean pairwise TE. Conventional spectral power metrics were also calculated. Linear mixed-effects models tested whether within-person variation in positive affect was associated with within-person variation in prefrontal TE and spectral power across conditions. Results: Condition-related change in positive affect was significantly associated with change in mean pairwise TE, such that greater preservation of positive affect under sleep deprivation corresponded with greater increases in prefrontal TE. Within-person positive affect was significantly associated with prefrontal TE, whereas between-person mean positive affect was not significant. In contrast, positive affect was not significantly associated with total power or relative theta, alpha, or beta power. Conclusions: Resting-state prefrontal TE was associated with state-level preservation of positive affect under sleep deprivation, suggesting that complex prefrontal information flow may index affective resilience under sleep loss. Significance: These findings support further investigation of EEG-based complex information flow metrics as neurophysiological markers of affective resilience in sleep-deprived and operationally relevant settings.
ER -