scholarly journals 0063 Rapid Eye Movement (rem) Sleep Regulation By GABAergic Neurons In The Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Grey In Mice

SLEEP ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. A26-A26
Author(s):  
C Gagliardi ◽  
G Absi ◽  
R Vetrivelan
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Le Bon

Since the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Aserinsky and Kleitman, 1953), sleep has been described as a succession of cycles of non-REM (NREM) and REM sleep episodes. The hypothesis of short-term REM sleep homeostasis, which is currently the basis of most credible theories on sleep regulation, is built upon a positive correlation between the duration of a REM sleep episode and the duration of the interval until the next REM sleep episode (inter-REM interval): the duration of REM sleep would therefore predict the duration of this interval. However, the high variability of inter-REM intervals, especially in polyphasic sleep, argues against a simple oscillator model. A new “asymmetrical” hypothesis is presented here, where REM sleep episodes only determine the duration of a proportional post-REM refractory period (PRRP), during which REM sleep is forbidden and the only remaining options are isolated NREM episodes or waking. After the PRRP, all three options are available again (NREM, REM, and Wake). I will explain why I think this hypothesis also calls into question the notion of NREM-REM sleep cycles.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Stucynski ◽  
Amanda L. Schott ◽  
Justin Baik ◽  
Shinjae Chung ◽  
Franz Weber

ABSTRACTThe two major stages of mammalian sleep – rapid eye movement sleep (REMs) and non-REM sleep (NREMs) – are characterized by distinct brain rhythms ranging from millisecond to minute-long (infraslow) oscillations. The mechanisms controlling transitions between sleep stages and how they are synchronized with infraslow rhythms remain poorly understood. Using opto- and chemogenetic manipulation, we show that GABAergic neurons in the dorsomedial medulla (dmM) promote the initiation and maintenance of REMs, in part through their projections to the dorsal and median raphe nuclei. Fiber photometry revealed that dmM GABAergic neurons are strongly activated during REMs. During NREMs, their activity fluctuated in close synchrony with infraslow oscillations in the spindle band of the electroencephalogram, and the phase of this rhythm modulated the latency of optogenetically induced REMs episodes. Thus, dmM inhibitory neurons powerfully promote REMs, and their slow activity fluctuations may coordinate transitions from NREMs to REMs with infraslow brain rhythms.


Author(s):  
Craig Heller

The words “regulation” and “control” have different meanings. A rich literature exists on the control mechanisms of sleep—the genomic, molecular, cellular, and circuit processes responsible for arousal state changes and characteristics. The regulation of sleep refers to functions and homeostatic maintenance of those functions. Much less is known about sleep regulation than sleep control, largely because functions of sleep are still unknown. Regulation requires information about the regulated variable that can be used as feedback information to achieve optimal levels. The circadian timing of sleep is regulated, and the feedback information is entraining stimuli such as the light–dark cycle. Sleep itself is homeostatically regulated, as evidenced by sleep deprivation experiments. Eletroenceophalography (EEG) slow-wave activity (SWA) is regulated, and it appears that adenosine is the major source of feedback information, and that fact indicates an energetic function for sleep. The last aspect of sleep regulation discussed in this short article is the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycling. Evidence is discussed that supports the argument that NREM sleep is in a homeostatic relationship with wake, and REM sleep is in a homeostatic relationship with NREM sleep.


eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun-Ming Ni ◽  
Xiao-Jun Hou ◽  
Ci-Hang Yang ◽  
Ping Dong ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
...  

Cholinergic projections from the basal forebrain and brainstem are thought to play important roles in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and arousal. Using transgenic mice in which channelrhdopsin-2 is selectively expressed in cholinergic neurons, we show that optical stimulation of cholinergic inputs to the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) activates local GABAergic neurons to promote sleep and protect non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. It does not affect REM sleep. Instead, direct activation of cholinergic input to the TRN shortens the time to sleep onset and generates spindle oscillations that correlate with NREM sleep. It does so by evoking excitatory postsynaptic currents via α7-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and inducing bursts of action potentials in local GABAergic neurons. These findings stand in sharp contrast to previous reports of cholinergic activity driving arousal. Our results provide new insight into the mechanisms controlling sleep.


1992 ◽  
Vol 262 (3) ◽  
pp. E295-E300 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Born ◽  
C. Kellner ◽  
D. Uthgenannt ◽  
W. Kern ◽  
H. L. Fehm

In two double-blind experiments, effects of intravenous infusion of arginine vasopressin (AVP) on sleep were evaluated in 2 groups of 10 men (20-35 yr). In experiment I, subjects were tested on two occasions, during which they received either placebo or 0.33 IU/h AVP. In experiment II, on three different occasions, subjects received either placebo or 0.66 or 0.99 IU/h AVP. Infusions were administered between 2200 and 0700 h. Nocturnal plasma AVP concentrations were close to the upper limit of the normal physiological range during 0.66 IU/h AVP (16.6 +/- 2.2 pg/ml) but markedly exceeded this range during 0.99 IU/h AVP (25.0 +/- 1.6 pg/ml). Results indicate primary effects of AVP on rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, with moderate reductions in REM sleep during 0.33 IU/h AVP (averaging -10.5%) and with substantial reductions in REM sleep (-24.0%) during 0.66 IU/h AVP. During 0.99 IU/h AVP the effect did not further increase (-24.4%). Less consistent effects of AVP were an increase in stage 2 sleep and in time awake. Effects of AVP were not mediated by changes in cortisol or blood pressure. Results suggest AVP to participate in REM sleep regulation under normal physiological conditions.


2001 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 2490-2501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hedieh Hamrahi ◽  
Richard Stephenson ◽  
Safraaz Mahamed ◽  
Kiong Sen Liao ◽  
Richard L. Horner

Recurrent sleep-related hypoxia occurs in common disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The marked changes in sleep after treatment suggest that stimuli associated with OSA (e.g., intermittent hypoxia) may significantly modulate sleep regulation. However, no studies have investigated the independent effects of intermittent sleep-related hypoxia on sleep regulation and recovery sleep after removal of intermittent hypoxia. Ten rats were implanted with telemetry units to record the electroencephalogram (EEG), neck electromyogram, and body temperature. After >7 days recovery, a computer algorithm detected sleep-wake states and triggered hypoxic stimuli (10% O2) or room air stimuli only during sleep for a 3-h period. Sleep-wake states were also recorded for a 3-h recovery period after the stimuli. Each rat received an average of 69.0 ± 6.9 hypoxic stimuli during sleep. The non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep episodes averaged 50.1 ± 3.2 and 58.9 ± 6.6 s, respectively, with the hypoxic stimuli, with 32.3 ± 3.2 and 58.6 ± 4.8 s of these periods being spent in hypoxia. Compared with results for room air controls, hypoxic stimuli led to increased wakefulness ( P < 0.005), nonsignificant changes in non-REM sleep, and reduced REM sleep ( P < 0.001). With hypoxic stimuli, wakefulness episodes were longer and more frequent, non-REM periods were shorter and more frequent, and REM episodes were shorter and less frequent ( P < 0.015). Hypoxic stimuli also increased faster frequencies in the EEG ( P < 0.005). These effects of hypoxic stimuli were reversed on return to room air. There was a rebound increase in REM sleep, increased slower non-REM EEG frequencies, and decreased wakefulness ( P < 0.001). The results show that sleep-specific hypoxia leads to significant modulation of sleep-wake regulation both during and after application of the intermittent hypoxic stimuli. This study is the first to determine the independent effects of sleep-related hypoxia on sleep regulation that approximates OSA before and after treatment.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann M Schmeichel ◽  
Elizabeth A Coon ◽  
Joseph E Parisi ◽  
Wolfgang Singer ◽  
Phillip A Low ◽  
...  

Abstract Study Objectives Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is associated with disturbances in cardiovascular, sleep and respiratory control. The lateral paragigantocellular nucleus (LPGi) in the ventrolateral medulla (VLM) contains GABAergic neurons that participate in control of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and cardiovagal responses. We sought to determine whether there was loss of putative GABAergic neurons in the LPGi and adjacent regions in MSA. Methods Sections of the medulla were processed for GAD65/67 immunoreactivity in eight subjects with clinical and neuropathological diagnosis of MSA and in six control subjects. These putative GABAergic LPGi neurons were mapped based on their relationship to adjacent monoaminergic VLM groups. Results There were markedly decreased numbers of GAD-immunoreactive neurons in the LPGi and adjacent VLM regions in MSA. Conclusions There is loss of GABAergic neurons in the VLM, including the LPGi in patients with MSA. Whereas these findings provide a possible mechanistic substrate, given the few cases included, further studies are necessary to determine whether they contribute to REM sleep-related cardiovagal and possibly respiratory dysregulation in MSA.


1997 ◽  
Vol 273 (4) ◽  
pp. R1430-R1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Capece ◽  
R. Lydic

Cholinergic neurotransmission in the medial pontine reticular formation (mPRF) modulates rapid eye movement (REM) sleep generation. Microinjection of cholinergic agonists and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors into the mPRF induces a REM sleep-like state, and microdialysis data reveal increased mPRF levels of acetylcholine during REM sleep. Muscarinic cholinergic receptors (mAChRs) participate in REM sleep generation, and data suggest that mAChRs of a non-M1 subtype modulate REM sleep generation. The signal transduction pathway activated by m2 and m4 mAChRs involves a pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein, adenylate cyclase (AC), adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP), and protein kinase A (PKA). Therefore, the present study tested the hypothesis that cAMP and PKA within the mPRF modulate the carbachol-induced REM sleep-like state. To test this hypothesis, the mPRF was microinjected with compounds known to facilitate the effects of cAMP (dibutyryl cAMP and 8-bromo-cAMP), stimulate PKA (Sp-cAMP[S]), and inhibit PKA (Rp-cAMP[S]). The results showed that compounds that fostered the intracellular effects of cAMP significantly decreased cholinergic REM sleep, while having no effect on spontaneously occurring REM sleep. These data are consistent with the recent finding that within the mPRF, AC and a pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein modulate cholinergic REM sleep generation. These new data suggest a modulatory role for pontine cAMP and PKA in cholinergic REM sleep regulation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1087-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritchie E. Brown ◽  
Radhika Basheer ◽  
James T. McKenna ◽  
Robert E. Strecker ◽  
Robert W. McCarley

This review summarizes the brain mechanisms controlling sleep and wakefulness. Wakefulness promoting systems cause low-voltage, fast activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Multiple interacting neurotransmitter systems in the brain stem, hypothalamus, and basal forebrain converge onto common effector systems in the thalamus and cortex. Sleep results from the inhibition of wake-promoting systems by homeostatic sleep factors such as adenosine and nitric oxide and GABAergic neurons in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus, resulting in large-amplitude, slow EEG oscillations. Local, activity-dependent factors modulate the amplitude and frequency of cortical slow oscillations. Non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep results in conservation of brain energy and facilitates memory consolidation through the modulation of synaptic weights. Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep results from the interaction of brain stem cholinergic, aminergic, and GABAergic neurons which control the activity of glutamatergic reticular formation neurons leading to REM sleep phenomena such as muscle atonia, REMs, dreaming, and cortical activation. Strong activation of limbic regions during REM sleep suggests a role in regulation of emotion. Genetic studies suggest that brain mechanisms controlling waking and NREM sleep are strongly conserved throughout evolution, underscoring their enormous importance for brain function. Sleep disruption interferes with the normal restorative functions of NREM and REM sleep, resulting in disruptions of breathing and cardiovascular function, changes in emotional reactivity, and cognitive impairments in attention, memory, and decision making.


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