Development of REM sleep

描述（由申请人提供）：人类婴儿每天睡眠16小时，其中8小时为快速眼动睡眠。从出生到青春期，快速眼动睡眠的时间急剧减少。我们的总体假设是，如果这种快速眼动睡眠的发育减少没有发生，那么快速眼动睡眠驱动的终生增加可能会随之而来。快速眼动睡眠驱动增加存在于精神分裂症、焦虑症和抑郁症等高警觉性疾病中，这些疾病的主要病因是发育性的。控制觉醒和睡眠的主要区域是网状激活系统（RAS），它的胆碱能分支——桥脚核（PPN）通过对各种目标的投射来帮助产生快速眼动睡眠。其中一个目标，蓝下核（SubC），已知表现出p波，这种活动的阵发性波前被认为导致从慢波睡眠过渡到快速眼动睡眠。本研究将探讨在大鼠出生后10至30天的快速眼动睡眠发育减少期间，胆碱能输入到SubC的发展，以及PPN驱动SubC细胞的能力。我们假设p波可能由间隙连接促进，这一机制将被研究其在该系统中潜在的病理基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human infant sleeps 16 hrs/day, 8 as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The amount of REM sleep decreases dramatically from birth until puberty. Our overall hypothesis is that if this developmental decrease in REM sleep does NOT occur, a lifelong increase in REM sleep drive may ensue. Increased REM sleep drive is present in such disorders of hypervigilance as schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and depression, which have a predominantly developmental etiology. The main region controlling arousal and sleep is the reticular activating system (RAS), and the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), its cholinergic arm, helps generate REM sleep via its projections to various targets. One target, the SubCoeruleus nucleus (SubC), is known to manifest P-waves, paroxysmal wavefronts of activity thought to lead to the transition from slow wave sleep into REM sleep. The proposed studies will investigate the development of cholinergic input to the SubC, and the ability of the PPN to drive SubC cells during the developmental decrease in REM sleep in the rat, which occurs between 10 and 30 days postnatally. We hypothesize that P-waves may be facilitated by gap Junctions, a mechanism that will be studied for its potential to underlie pathology in this system.