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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

SLEEP DEPRIVATION AS KEY FACTOR OF INFLUENCING COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN
CONTEXT OF SECURITY ENVIRONMENT

DAVID ULLRICH,

EVA AMBROZOVÁ,

PAVEL

SLÁDEK,

EVA KOZÁKOVÁ,

FRANTIŠEK

MILICHOVSKÝ

Brno University of Defence, Faculty of Military Leadership,

Kounicova 65, 662 10 Brno, Czech Republic

Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Business and

Management, Department of management, Kolejní 2906/4, 612
00 Brno, Czech Republic

email: david.ullrich@unob.cz; eva.ambrozova@unob.cz;
milichovsky@fbm.vutbr.cz

Abstract: In this study we examined in how far sleep deprivation leads to autism-like
symptoms with regard to social cognition. The negative effects of sleep deprivation on
physical and mental functioning are well documented and it is therefore surprising that
relatively little research has been done into the effects of sleep deprivation on social
behaviour and the ability to judge social interactions and emotional expressions
appropriately. Our experiment, conducted amongst 25 male students at the Czech
military academy in Brno, Czech Republic, showed no significant differences in
performance on a standard autism test between pre- and post- sleep deprivation
conditions. The purpose of the paper is describe impacts of sleep deprivation on men
with high physical stress, what negatively influence relevant cognitions and emotions.
Sleep deprivation strongly influence cognitive abilities, leading to military leadership
development.

Keywords: sleep-deprivation, theory of mind, leadership, development of leader,
social cognition, emotional expressions, security field.

1 Introduction

Security environment requires to have lot of high quality leaders,
who can combine both requirements of subordinates and
superiors. That combination need to apply model “be, know,
do”, which is developed from U.S. army rule (McNab, 2003).
According to Jarošová, Pauknerová, Lorencová (2016) it is
necessary to use relevant personal parameters to build leadership
in organization. The group of personal parameters includes
various elements, influencing level of leader. As one of the most
influencing parameter is considered sleep deprivation.

It is widely recognized that sleep deprivation impairs a range of
cognitive functions, including memory (Deliens et al., 2018;
Menz et al., 2013; Kaida, Niki, Born, 2015; Chatburn et al.,
2017), visual perception taking (Deliens et al., 2018), reaction
time to visual cues (Dinges, Powell, 1985; Lim, Dinges, 2008),
and emotional processing (Walker, 2009; Walker, van der Helm,
2009; Tempesta et al., 2018). With regard to the latter, especially
our ability to correctly interpret emotional cues from others (i.e.
facial expressions, changes in speech, etc.) is paramount in
navigating the social environment properly and sleep deficiency
can thus severely hinder social behavior and, in the long term,
connectivity. Moreover, failure to either detect, or correctly
interpret, emotional cues from others can, in critical contexts,
have dire consequences, which reach far beyond the interests of
the individual. It is therefore surprising that sleep deprivation is
a common, and often accepted, part of many professional fields,
such as health care and the military, in which it is critical to
quickly and accurately assess crisis situations which include a
human element.

1.1 Various interpretations of sleep deprivation effect

Sleep deprivation does, however, not seem to impair the
recognition of different emotional ques equally (Killgore et al.,
2017; Chen, Chen, 2019). In one study Killgore and colleagues
(2017), on the basis of previous findings on the same data set
(Huck et al., 2008), report that sleep deprived individuals, who
were presented with photos of the facial expressions that go with
the six main emotions (anger, happiness, surprise, sadness,
disgust and fear (see e.g. Ekman, 2009; Cartella et al., 2019;
Montes-Rodríguez, Rueda-Orozco, Prospéro-García, 2019),
differed from well rested individuals in their interpretation of
non-threatening emotions (happiness and sadness), whereas

threatening emotions were usually interpreted correctly. These
findings contradict Beatti’s (2018) assertion that failure to
correctly identify facial expressions of emotion may result from
reduced visual perception rather than a cognitive impairment.
After all, visual impairment should register equally across
emotions whereas cognitive impairment can favor some
emotional expressions over others (Herzog-Krzywoszanska,
Krzywoszanski, 2019). These findings are supported by the
observation that sleep deprivation leads to increased activity in
the amygdala and decreased activity in the ventromedial
prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) during the consolidation of fear
memories (Feng et al., 2018). Moreover, Yoo and colleagues
(2007) report a significant reduction in communication between
the amygdala and the vmPFC in sleep deprived individuals. The
increased activity in the amygdala may, in addition, go a long
way in explaining the heightened sensitivity to anxiety (Pires et
al., 2016) and the disproportional effects on the detection and
interpretation of different emotions in sleep deprived individuals.
It should however be noted that the study by Killgore and
colleagues (2017) focused on the six primary emotions and it is
unclear in how far these results hold up for larger sub-sets of
emotions.

1.2 Brief introduction of the Theory of Mind

Interestingly, the vmPFC has also been implicated as one of the
key brain regions for Theory of Mind (ToM) (Amodio, Frith,
2006); the ability project states of mind on other actors in the
environment (Premack, Woodruff, 1978). It must be noted
however that it is widely recognized that ToM arises from the
interaction between more brain regions (Gallagher, Frith, 2003;
Saxe, 2006; Abu-Akel, Shamay-Tsoory, 2011) and other
regions, such as the Para cingulate cortex Gallagher, Frith, 2003)
and the orbitofrontal cortex (Stone, 2000) have been suggested
as the key area for ToM. These differences may arise from the
application of different tests for ToM and it must be taken in to
consideration that, what is commonly referred to as ToM, may in
fact be a conglomerate of trades which have their origins in
different regions of the brain.

ToM is instrumental in (human) social behavior as it provides
the individual with a rapid, relatively accurate means of
predicting the behavior of others within different social settings
and in reaction to the individual’s actions or those of third
parties (i.e. Ben will be angry with John, if John kicks him: 3rd
degree ToM). In humans ToM has been demonstrated to be
oversensitive and too often include the attribution of human like
behaviors and motivations to non-human agents
(anthropomorphism) such as animals (Butterfield, Hill, Lord,
2012; Urquiza-Haas, Kotrschal, 2015), inanimate objects
(Waytz, Heafner, Epley, 2014; Gjersoe, Hall, Hood, 2015; Riva,
Sacchi, Brambilla, 2015), and abstract concepts such as nature
(Tam, Lee, Chao, 2013) and Gods (Barrett, Keil, 1996;
MacGillavry, 2018). Deficiencies in ToM have been extensively
studied with relation to a range of psychological disorders, such
as autism (Baron-Cohen et al., 2011), Schizophrenia
(Harrington, Siegert, McClure, 2005), and epilepsy (Giovagnoli,
2014), as well as diseases which are associated with brain
deterioration such as Huntington’s (Snowden et al., 2003) and
Parkinson’s (Bora, Walterfang, Velakoulis, 2015) disease. The
aim of the following study is to determine in how far the effects
of acute sleep deprivation resemble diminished ToM as observed
in the above-mentioned afflictions, specifically autism.

1.3 Leadership in security environment on development of
managers

Leadership is described as basic tool how is possible to manage
and lead people and human systems. There are specific
approaches, when commanders must motive and get people to be
more engaged in reaching defined goals. In context of army
organization, Goffee and Jones (2008) mention potential

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