BRAINSTEM MECHANISMS OF ALERTING

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：该项目寻求进一步 了解产生和维持的机制 一个睡眠阶段，快速眼动睡眠 快速眼动通常在睡眠的其他阶段之后， 睡眠，统称为非REM（NREM）。 其区别特征 是骨骼肌的完全麻痹， 抽搐，脑电图活动类似于清醒， 比NREM，和深刻的抑郁症的大脑机制调节 体内平衡，即，那些控制着生命的重要特征， 体温、心血管活动和呼吸。 此外，当我们 在20年前就证明了，快速眼动期的大脑功能与 在清醒状态下定向的时候。 该项目的重点将是研究 大鼠前脑杏仁核内神经细胞的活动及其与神经元的关系 与后脑脑桥中那些长期以来一直存在的相互作用 被研究并与快速眼动的控制密切相关 研究者 杏仁核和脑桥紧密相连 杏仁核是一个关键的结构， 具有情感意义的环境刺激 因此， 杏仁核等结构对刺激的敏感性必须先于 进入REM。 事实上，在发作性睡病患者中， 调节患者直接从清醒状态进入快速眼动， 这样的刺激。 研究者应记录单个神经元活动， 三个杏仁核，中央（CNA），基底外侧（BLA）和外侧 (LA)，跨越睡眠-觉醒状态。 调查人员应确定如何 不同递质对脑桥关键神经元刺激和抑制 型，肾上腺素能，去甲肾上腺素能和胆碱能，自发影响 活跃的杏仁核神经元和那些对新的或重要的 听觉刺激 这些实验解决了可能是 在嗜睡症和创伤后应激障碍中发生了改变

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): This project seeks further understanding of the mechanisms underlying the generation and maintenance of one phase of sleep, REM sleep. REM normally follows the other stages of sleep, collectively known as non-REM (NREM). Its differentiating features are a total paralysis of skeletal muscles with superimposed phasic muscle twitches, electroencephalographic activity resembling wakefulness rather than NREM, and profound depression of the brain mechanisms regulating homeostasis, i.e., those controlling such vital features of life as temperature, cardiovascular activity and respiration. Further, as we demonstrated 20 years ago, the brain in REM functions much like the brain during orienting in wakefulness. The project's focus will be study of the activity of nerve cells in the amygdala of the forebrain of rats and their interactions with those in the pons of the hindbrain that have long been studied and heavily implicated in the control of REM. The investigator is stimulated by the facts that the amygdala and pons are tightly interconnected and that the amygdala is a key structure investing environmental stimuli with emotional significance. Thus, a change in sensitivity of structures like the amygdala to arousing stimuli must precede entrance into REM. Indeed, in narcoleptics the shift to REM is so poorly modulated that sufferers enter REM directly from wakefulness when confronted by such stimuli. The investigator shall record single-neuronal activity in three amygdalar nuclei, the central (CNA), basolateral (BLA) and lateral (LA), across sleep-wake states. The investigator shall determine how stimulation and suppression of key pontine neurons of different transmitter types, serotonergic, noradrenergic and cholinergic, affect spontaneously active amygdalar neurons and those responding to novel or significant auditory stimuli. These experiments address basic mechanisms likely to be altered in narcolepsy and PTSD.