Executive functions and cognitive subprocesses in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea.

In recent years, special interest has been focused on impairments of executive functions in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). However, the majority of studies have not clearly separated deficits in executive functions from impairments in other cognitive processes involved in task solving. In the present study, working memory (WM) functions of 20 patients with OSAS were compared with those of 10 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy subjects.