Sexually-Dimorphic Regulation of Sleep

睡眠对于身心健康至关重要。它受到体内平衡的调节，通过这种平衡积累 清醒时的睡眠驱动力会导致睡眠倾向增加。然而，我们可以熬夜 如果我们有重要或有趣的事情要做，例如照顾婴儿或阅读书籍，就会迟到 迷人的书。换句话说，睡眠也受到动机状态的调节。因此睡眠驱动 与其他动机驱动力竞争来决定我们是否睡觉或从事其他重要或 有趣的活动。我们最近发现，性欲深刻影响男性睡眠 果蝇和章鱼胺能神经元的一个子集（章鱼胺类似于人类 去甲肾上腺素）通过男性性欲介导睡眠抑制。先前的研究表明 雌性果蝇交配后睡眠较少，产卵较多。因此，男性和女性都会调整自己的 睡眠模式以满足生殖需要。然而，睡眠和睡眠的神经机制 生殖行为的平衡性尚不清楚。在该提案的初步研究中， 我们确定了几个以前未表征的神经元群，用于平衡睡眠和睡眠 男性和女性的生殖行为。新发现的两个种群是 多巴胺能，表明章鱼胺和多巴胺信号通路合作整合 睡眠和生殖行为。我们将确定解剖学和生理学的连通性 各种神经元群体之间的关系，并研究它们在睡眠和生殖中的作用 结合行为分析、钙成像、电路追踪、 免疫组织化学，以及生成用于精确操作特定神经元的新驱动程序。 我们提出的研究提供了一个很好的机会来发现基本的神经机制和一般 构成竞争驱动力之间平衡基础的组织原则。研究如何睡眠 调节机制与性别二态性行为的神经机制进行通信 章鱼胺和多巴胺等神经调节剂可能有助于更好地理解神经调节剂如何 人脑整合了睡眠驱动力和其他动机状态。

Sleep is essential for healthy mind and body. It is regulated by homeostasis, by which accumulated sleep drive during wakefulness leads to increased propensity toward sleep. However, we can stay up late if we have something important or interesting to do, for example, take care of a baby or read a fascinating book. In other words, sleep is also regulated by motivational states. Thus sleep drive competes with other motivational drives to decide whether we sleep or engage in other important or interesting activities. We have recently shown that sex drive profoundly affects male sleep in Drosophila and that a subset of octopaminergic neurons (octopamine is analogous to human norepinephrine) mediates sleep suppression by male sex drive. Previous studies have shown that female flies sleep less and lay more eggs after mating. Thus both males and females adjust their sleep patterns to meet reproductive needs. However, the neural mechanisms of how sleep and reproductive behaviors are balanced are not well understood. In preliminary studies for this proposal, we identified several previously uncharacterized neuronal populations for balancing sleep and reproductive behaviors in males and females. Two of the newly identified populations are dopaminergic, suggesting that octopamine and dopamine signaling pathways cooperate to integrate sleep and reproductive behaviors. We will determine the anatomical and physiological connectivity among the various neuronal populations, and investigate their role in sleep and reproductive behaviors using a combination of behavioral analysis, calcium imaging, circuit tracing, immunohistochemistry, and generation of new drivers for precise manipulation of specific neurons. Our proposed studies offer an excellent opportunity to discover basic neural mechanisms and general organizing principles that underlie the balance between competing drives. Investigating how sleep regulatory mechanisms communicate with neural mechanisms for sexually-dimorphic behaviors using neuromodulators such as octopamine and dopamine may lead to a better understanding of how the human brain integrates sleep drive and other motivational states.