The Neural Substrates of Infant Sleep in Rats

Karlsson, Karl; Gall, Andrew J.; Mohns, Ethan J.; Seelke, Adele M. H.; Blumberg, Mark S.

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030143

Cited by 120 publications

(157 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…We have found, however, that nuchal muscle tone alone provides a reliable indicator of sleep and wakefulness in infants (5, 10, 11). Moreover, this single measure of state has been used in week-old rats to identify medullary and mesopontine regions involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness (12,13). Therefore, the sleep-wake durations and transitions reported here using nuchal EMG likely reflect the same neural activity within the brainstem that gives rise to sleep-wake cycles as defined by using electroencephalogram and EMG measures in adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Dynamics of sleep-wake cyclicity in developing rats

Blumberg

Seelke

Lowen

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

154

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] indicate that sleep bout durations exhibit an exponential distribution, whereas wake bout durations exhibit a power-law distribution. Moreover, it was found that wake bout distributions, but not sleep bout distributions, exhibit scale invariance across mammals of different body sizes. Here we test the generalizability of these findings by examining the distributions of sleep and wake bout durations in infant rats between 2 and 21 days of age. In agreement with Lo et al., we find that sleep bout durations exhibit exponential distributions at all ages examined. In contrast, however, wake bout durations also exhibit exponential distributions at the younger ages, with a clear power-law distribution only emerging at the older ages. Further analyses failed to find substantial evidence either of short-or long-term correlations in the data, thus suggesting that the durations of current sleep and wake bouts evolve through time without memory of the durations of preceding bouts. These findings further support the notion that bouts of sleep and wakefulness are regulated independently. Moreover, in light of recent evidence that developmental changes in sleep and wake bouts can be attributed in part to increasing forebrain influences, these findings suggest the possibility of identifying specific neural circuits that modulate the changing complexity of sleep and wake dynamics during development.atonia ͉ renewal process ͉ Markov process ͉ development A s members of a diurnal species, adult humans experience sleep as a prolonged period of rest during the night; however, sleep actually occurs as a series of discrete bouts interrupted by bouts of wakefulness. What is perhaps most striking during the first several months after birth, when circadian influences on behavioral state are not well established, is the brevity of these bouts of sleep and wakefulness (1). In newborn rats at 2 days of age (P2), these cycles are astonishingly rapid: The average bout lengths of nuchal muscle atonia (indicative of sleep) and high nuchal muscle tone (indicative of wakefulness) are only 15 s and 5 s, respectively (2). Over the next week, bout lengths increase significantly as forebrain mechanisms exert increasing modulatory control over brainstem mechanisms controlling sleep and wakefulness (2).Recently, Lo et al. (3) analyzed the distributions of sleep and wake bouts in human adults. They found that, whereas sleep bouts exhibited an exponential distribution [such that the frequency distribution f(t) of bout durations of duration t was proportional to e (Ϫt/) , where is the characteristic time scale], wake bouts exhibited a power-law distribution [such that f(t) Ϸ t Ϫ␣ , where ␣ is a characteristic power-law exponent]. In a subsequent report (4), these findings were extended to cats, rats, and mice. From this comparative analysis, Lo and colleagues found that the exponential time scale for sleep bout durations increased with body size, thus possibly implicating a constitutional variable (e.g., metabolic rate) in the regulation of sleep bout...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Dynamics of sleep-wake cyclicity in developing rats

Blumberg

Seelke

Lowen

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

154

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Large groups of animals do not exhibit the differentiated EEG signals that are a prerequisite of an EEG based definition of sleep [10,11]. Unihemispheric sleep in the cetacean and avian phyla reveals that sleep can be achieved, in neural terms, locally [40].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These criteria are used to study sleep at early developmental ages before the onset of differentiated EEG [11] and in genetically tractable organisms such as fruit flies, zebra fish and even nematodes [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. (For discussion on whether electrographic and behaviorally defined sleep represent the same phenomena, please see: [10,19]).…”

Section: Typical Posturementioning

confidence: 99%

Is Sleep Beyond Our Control?

Þorsteinsson¹,

Karlsson²

2009

TOSLPJ

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Sleep is mysterious. It is ubiquitous and vital, yet its function remains unknown. There are, however, exceptions from the omnipresence of sleep: Birds that exhibit less sleep drive during migration; cetaceans and dolphins that sidestep the need for sleep by sleeping with one hemisphere at a time; frogs that do not seem to sleep at all; and strains of mice and fruit flies that sleep less than their wild-type counterparts. Moreover, new drugs have been discovered that combat the need for sleep in humans without the well known side effects of common stimulants. In the current review, the different ways of evading sleep will be examined. It will be argued that to understand how sleep can be controlled research efforts need to be extended to non-standard laboratory animals that exhibit different methods of evading sleep. Finally, it is argued that emerging clues point to increased membrane excitability as the common neural process used to execute seemingly different forms of sleep-evasion.

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“…This has suggested to some that a primal phasic activity of the central nervous system transforms postnatally over an extended time period into the very different brainstem-generated pattern seen in adults. But in this issue of PLoS Biology , Karlsson et al [21] show that this is not the case. In a set of technically demanding experiments, they demonstrate a remarkable similarity between sleep control mechanisms in the one-week-old rat and those in the adult cat, and by implication throughout the mammalian line.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One can now imagine examining the metabolism and membrane characteristics of these critical cell groups as a means of gaining better insight into REM sleep function. However, as Karlsson et al's work demonstrates [21], most of the neurons of interest are not homogenously concentrated in any easily targeted region. Identifying the individual neurons of interest in vitro remains a challenge.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%