RUI: Physiology of Sleep and Assessment of the Costs of Experimental Sleep Loss in Arctic-Breeding Songbirds

RUI：睡眠生理学和北极繁殖鸣禽实验性睡眠不足成本的评估

• 批准号: 1557882
• 负责人: Noah Ashley
• 金额: $ 96.5万
• 依托单位: Western Kentucky University Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-15 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1557882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Physiology; Sleep; Assessment; Costs

Sleep is an essential and restorative process that is often neglected in modern society. In humans, chronic sleep loss (insomnia, shift work, sleep apnea) has negative consequences on normal physiological and mental function and is a risk factor for many chronic conditions, such as metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. In the Arctic, migratory songbirds are active for 20 hours/day to take advantage of constant summer light, and seemingly do not suffer from the well-known detrimental effects of sleep loss, such as physiological and cognitive dysfunction. This research aims to investigate sleep patterns and assess the costs and benefits of sleep loss in arctic-breeding songbirds in Barrow, Alaska (71°N). Broader impacts of the proposal include training the next generation of science teachers to provide instruction to K-12 students of rural Alaska, engaging students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate) and postdoctoral trainees from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in collaborative research, and disseminating research findings to scientists and the general public.Sleep is essential for most organisms, although its precise function is enigmatic. Chronic sleep loss is well known to have detrimental effects on human health and performance. However, other species display a diversity of sleep patterns that challenge the assumption that reduced sleep is costly for all vertebrates. This proposal takes advantage of state-of-the-art miniaturized transmitters to assess sleep architecture in free-ranging songbirds. Arctic-breeding passerines exhibit extended wakefulness during migration and are active 20 hours/day on their breeding grounds where continuous daylight prevails. The project aims to investigate the sleep/wake cycles of two species of songbirds with different life-history strategies that breed in the high Arctic (Barrow, Alaska, 71° N). It is hypothesized that both natural and sexual selection play a role in determining their sleep patterns. Next, daily sleep will be experimentally increased or decreased to assess life-history tradeoffs with fecundity and/or survivorship. Lastly, the hypothesis will be tested whether arctic-breeding songbirds are more resilient to metabolic, cognitive, hormonal, and immunological costs of sleep loss compared with temperate-breeding birds in captivity. Broader impacts include a Future Teachers of Science program that fosters training of science teachers to develop teaching modules for K-12 students of rural Alaska and a cross-cultural research program for high school students of Alaska and Kentucky to assist with field research. Results from the research will contribute to our understanding of how arctic-dwelling species, including humans, cope with continuous periods of arctic light.

睡眠是一个重要的恢复过程，但在现代社会却经常被忽视。在人类中，慢性睡眠不足（失眠、轮班工作、睡眠呼吸暂停）会对正常的生理和心理功能产生负面影响，并且是许多慢性疾病（如代谢和心血管疾病）的危险因素。在北极，迁徙的鸣禽每天活动20小时，以利用夏季持续的阳光，似乎不会遭受众所周知的睡眠不足的有害影响，如生理和认知功能障碍。本研究旨在调查阿拉斯加巴罗（北纬71度）北极繁殖鸣禽的睡眠模式，并评估睡眠损失的成本和收益。该提案的更广泛影响包括培训下一代科学教师，为阿拉斯加农村地区的K-12学生提供指导，吸引传统上代表性不足的背景的学生（高中、本科生和研究生）和博士后学员参与合作研究，并向科学家和公众传播研究成果。睡眠对大多数生物体来说是必不可少的，尽管它的确切功能还是个谜。众所周知，长期睡眠不足对人体健康和表现有不利影响。然而，其他物种表现出的睡眠模式的多样性挑战了减少睡眠对所有脊椎动物来说都是代价高昂的假设。该提案利用最先进的小型发射机来评估自由放养的鸣禽的睡眠结构。在北极繁殖的雀形鸟在迁徙过程中表现出长时间的清醒状态，每天在白昼持续的繁殖地活动20个小时。该项目旨在调查两种鸣禽的睡眠/觉醒周期，它们具有不同的生活史策略，在北极高海拔地区（巴罗，阿拉斯加，71°N）繁殖。据推测，自然选择和性选择在决定它们的睡眠模式方面都起着作用。接下来，将通过实验增加或减少每天的睡眠时间，以评估与繁殖力和/或存活率的生活史权衡。最后，这一假设将被测试，与圈养的温带繁殖鸟类相比，北极繁殖的鸣禽是否更能适应睡眠不足带来的代谢、认知、激素和免疫成本。更广泛的影响包括“未来科学教师”计划，该计划旨在培养科学教师，为阿拉斯加农村地区的K-12学生开发教学模块，并为阿拉斯加和肯塔基州的高中生开展跨文化研究计划，以协助进行实地研究。这项研究的结果将有助于我们了解生活在北极的物种，包括人类，是如何应对持续的北极光的。