Thalamic control of cortical dynamics during slow wave sleep via GABAergic interneurons

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We sleep almost one third of our life and adequate sleep is necessary for mental health. Indeed, lack of sleep is associated with attention deficit, fatigue, reduced performance and increased risk of obesity and other diseases. Sleep is essential for memory. For the memory of today's events to stick in our brains, a good night's sleep is necessary. More precisely, it is the deep sleep stages that are crucial for memory. These stages occur primarily during the first sleep cycles early during the night. They are characterised by synchronous activity throughout the brain. The synchronisation of neuronal activity is necessary for memory bits to be transferred from one brain area to another and for them to be consolidated or eliminated. A brain that lacks this synchronisation property would lose its ability to organise and retain information. We want to understand where this synchronisation comes from and what mechanisms are responsible. We have identified a site in the brain known as higher-order thalamic nuclei that could act as a conductor of brain synchronisation of neuronal activity.We will investigate this in mice by studying how disrupting the thalamic activity affects the synchronicity of neuronal activity. To control the thalamic activity we will use a new technique known as optogenetics, which permits us to activate or silence part of the mouse brain using a laser. Simultaneously we will use electrical recording of brain activity to evaluate the degree of synchronisation. We will test whether activating the thalamus with precise timing would enhance synchronisation of brain areas and whether silencing the thalamus would disorganise the brain synchronicity. The results of this study would identify a conductor for neuronal synchronisation and give insight into how to improve sleep quality.