After training on a spatial discrimination between two levers in a Skinner box, male Wistar rats were exposed to a reversal of the previously learned stimulus-response contingency. We first evaluated the effect of sleep deprivation on the acquisition of reversal learning. Performance on reversal learning after 12 h of sleep deprivation (n = 12) was compared to performance after control conditions (n = 12). The second experiment evaluated the effect of sleep deprivation on the consolidation of reversal learning; the first session of reversal learning was followed by 3 h of nap prevention (n = 8) or undisturbed control conditions (n = 8). The experiments had sufficient statistical power (0.90 and 0.81, respectively) to detect differences with medium effect sizes.
Neither the acquisition, nor the consolidation, of reversal learning was affected by acute sleep deprivation. Together with previous findings, these results help to further delineate the role of sleep in cognitive processing.