Min Xu

Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences

“Basal forebrain control of sleep-wake cycle: from neural circuits to sleep homeostasis”

Abstract: The mammalian basal forebrain (BF) has long been thought to play critical roles in controlling sleep and wakefulness, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We systematically investigated the neural mechanisms of the BF in regulating the sleep-wake cycle. We examined the BF circuits by recording and optogenetically perturbing the activity of four genetically defined cell types across sleep-wake cycles and comprehensively mapping their local and long-range synaptic connections using optogenetic assisted electrophysiology or virus-mediated circuit tracing. We also examined how BF neural activity controls sleep homeostasis. Using a novel adenosine sensor, we found a neuronal type-specific control of fast adenosine dynamics during the sleep-wake cycle, and uncovered a critical role of the BF glutamatergic neurons, but not cholinergic neurons or astrocytes, in controlling adenosine dynamics and sleep homeostasis, offering new insights into the mechanisms by which neural activity during wakefulness contributes to the increase of sleep pressure. Together, these work reveals the BF neural mechanisms for controlling the sleep-wake cycles.

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