BRAINSTEM MECHANISMS OF ALERTING

描述(改编自申请者的摘要)：本项目寻求进一步 理解产生和维护的潜在机制 睡眠的一个阶段，快速眼动睡眠。REM通常遵循以下其他阶段 睡眠，统称为非快速眼动(NREM)。它的差异化特征 是骨骼肌完全瘫痪并叠加时相肌 抽搐，脑电活动类似于清醒状态 比NREM，和深度抑郁的大脑调节机制 动态平衡，即那些控制生命的重要特征，如 体温、心血管活动和呼吸。此外，随着我们 20年前证明，处于快速眼动状态的大脑的功能与大脑非常相似 在清醒中定向的时候。该项目的重点将是研究 大鼠前脑杏仁核神经细胞的活动及其意义 与后脑脑桥中的那些长期以来一直 研究并深入参与了快速眼动的控制。调查员是 受杏仁核和脑桥紧密连接的事实刺激 杏仁核是一种关键的结构投资 具有情感意义的环境刺激。因此，改变 杏仁核等结构对唤起刺激的敏感性必须先于 进入REM。事实上，发作性睡病患者转向快速眼动的情况非常糟糕。 调整患者在面对时从清醒状态直接进入REM 在这样的刺激下。调查者应记录单个神经元的活动 杏仁核的三个核，中央核(CNA)、基底外侧核(BLA)和外侧核 (LA)，跨越睡眠-唤醒状态。调查员应确定如何 不同递质对脑桥关键神经元的刺激和抑制 类型，5-羟色胺能，去甲肾上腺素和胆碱能，自发地影响 杏仁核活跃神经元和对新的或有意义的反应 听觉刺激。这些实验涉及的基本机制很可能是 有发作性睡病和创伤后应激障碍。

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.