In the Nature verbal-learning study, activity in the left temporal lobe (a classic language-processing area) decreased after sleep deprivation, even though better performance was associated with increased parietal-lobe activity.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by the original Nature paper (Drummond et al., 2000), a contemporaneous ScienceDaily release, and a later review article summarizing the same findings. The 'left' laterality detail is plausible from the full paper though not explicit in the abstract.
Sources
- How does the brain catch up? - American Psychological Association (apa.org)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/35001068 (nature.com)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10688201/ (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3340569/ (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)