Too early for inhibitory control? ERP evidence for social jetlag in evening chronotypes across three domains of distraction

Young adults are frequently evening chronotypes due to their circadian rhythm, making their late sleep-wake cycles vulnerable to the misalignment with socially imposed early schedules, a phenomenon known as social jetlag. This misalignment leads to sleep deprivation and has been identified as a risk factor for poor academic performance. Understanding the relationship between social jetlag and inhibitory control is crucial, since academic achievement relies on inhibitory control, the ability to maintain and pursue a goal while inhibiting goal-irrelevant information. In this event-related potential study, we examined the impact of social jetlag on inhibitory control across three domains of distraction: Self-generated information, perceived environment, and habits. Each distraction domain was assessed using a well-established cognitive task: n-back, flanker, and global-local task, respectively. We assessed the relationship between social jetlag, task performance, and neural activity in young male adults who self-identified as evening chronotypes. Results provide evidence for an association between social jetlag and early conflict monitoring (N2 component), but not later inhibition monitoring (P3 component). Specifically, increased N2 amplitudes at the non-optimal time of day were found in the absence of behavioral differences. Future studies need to confirm whether this finding reflects compensatory neural mechanisms to maintain stable performance despite increased sleep pressure. Highlighting the multifaceted nature of inhibitory control, the relationship between social jetlag and inhibitory control varied by distraction domain, with associations in the n-back task and the congruent global-local task condition, but not the flanker task.