Development of REM sleep

描述(申请人提供)：人类婴儿每天睡眠16小时，8小时为快速眼动(REM)睡眠。从出生到青春期，快速眼动睡眠的数量急剧减少。我们的总体假设是，如果REM睡眠的这种发育性减少没有发生，REM睡眠驱动力的终生增加可能随之而来。精神分裂症、焦虑症和抑郁症等高度警觉障碍患者的快速眼动睡眠动力增加，这些疾病主要由发育性病因引起。控制觉醒和睡眠的主要区域是网状激活系统(RAS)，其胆碱能臂桥脚核(PPN)通过投射到不同的靶点来帮助产生REM睡眠。已知的靶点之一是乌头亚核(SUBC)，它表现出P波，这是一种阵发性活动波，被认为会导致从慢波睡眠向快速眼动睡眠的转变。这项拟议的研究将探讨在大鼠出生后10至30天的REM睡眠发育性下降期间，胆碱能输入到SUBC的发育，以及PPN驱动SUBC细胞的能力。我们假设P波可能由缝隙连接促进，这一机制将被研究为其潜在的基础病理在这个系统中。

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.