Exploring Interactions between the Sleep Homeostatic Process and Cortical Neuronal Dynamics

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My DPhil project involves the use of a combination of electrophysiological recording, pharmacology and mathematical modelling to explore interactions between the sleep homeostatic process (that which increases during wake and decreases during sleep) and activity in cortical neurones in mice. The main purpose of the project is to gain additional insight into the precise origins of this process, which reflects the ultimate functions of sleep in the brain. Specifically, I use adaptations of classic models of the sleep homeostatic process, which can be measured in the slow wave (0.5-4 Hz) activity levels of locally recorded field potentials, to explore its variability across a patch of cortex and determine to what extent this can be accounted for by local variation in recent neuronal activity. I further explore how theoretically motivated measures of neuronal dynamic state, related to criticality and neuronal avalanches, vary across the sleep-wake cycle and as a function of the sleep homeostatic process. Finally, I investigate, in mice, the effects of agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor, which induce potent alterations to the quality of wakefulness, on the occurrence of sleep and on the build-up and dissipation of sleep pressure. The project addresses the BBSRC priority area data driven biology.