Event:

Research interests:
Neural circuits for sleep and emotional brain function

Key words:
Sleep, neuropsychiatric diseases, hypothalamus, stress, neurodevelopmental disorders

Abstract:

Good quality sleep is essential for our well-being. Sleep disturbances can therefore negatively impact our mental and physical health. We show that acute psychosocial stress in mice disrupts sleep, by causing frequent arousals, disrupting slow (~minute) oscillations in the electroencephalogram and suppressing REMs. These changes were reflected in frequent activation of noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC-NE) during NREMs. Activating LC-NE neurons disrupted the sleep quality similar to stress, while inhibiting them after stress improved sleep partially through their projections to the preoptic area, a crucial sleep center. Our study reveals that LC-NE neurons and their interactions with hypothalamic sleep neurons orchestrate the sleep microarchitecture and play a crucial role in mediating the negative impact of stress on sleep.