Functional and Developmental Analysis of Sleep Drive Circuitry

1.摘要 睡眠是一种对维持人类健康至关重要的行为，其重要性因其 保护跨越欧亚大陆。许多关于睡眠神经机制的研究都是 在成年人中进行。然而，睡眠在年轻的动物中是明显不同的，并且可能在适当的睡眠中发挥关键作用。 神经系统的发育。不仅几乎所有物种的幼年动物睡眠时间都比成年动物长 成年人，这种睡眠更深，更巩固。人们认为，这种更长更深的睡眠可能是 大脑中发生的更大的发育和可塑性过程的结果和/或贡献 年轻的动物。然而，人们对幼兽的睡眠是如何调节的还知之甚少， 对神经回路正常发育的作用还没有得到充分的研究。我们的实验室最近发现了一种 在成熟动物中控制稳态睡眠驱动的神经元群。这些神经元变得高度活跃 睡眠剥夺后，触发稳态反弹睡眠在成熟的动物，都是必要的， 足够睡眠驾驶。有趣的是，我们还发现这些睡眠驱动神经元在基线时高度活跃 在年轻的动物。这些数据，沿着其他初步发现，使我假设， 睡眠驱动电路负责诱导年幼动物的高基线睡眠， 一个发展性的转变，只控制成年人的自我平衡睡眠反弹。我的额外初步数据也 表明幼年动物睡眠不足会损害成年动物的正常睡眠模式。因此，我也假设， 个体发育睡眠（发育过程中的睡眠）在睡眠驱力的正常发展中起着重要作用 电路在目标1中，我建议研究这种睡眠驱动电路，以解决分子，细胞和生理问题。 调节年轻动物睡眠的机制。在目标2中，我将研究假定的下游睡眠的作用， 个体发育睡眠中的效应神经元，并询问个体发育睡眠是否反过来影响发育。 这个睡眠驱动电路。上述目标中提出的实验将有助于填补我们在这方面的一个重大空白。 了解在整个发育过程中控制睡眠的神经回路。此外，调查结果显示， 可能会加深我们对控制睡眠驱力产生的分子和电路原理的理解， 大致上重要的是，执行这项工作将为我提供一个强大的概念和技术训练的睡眠 和神经回路分析潜在的行为。在我提议的导师团队和 优秀的培训环境，这里提出的研究和培训活动将理想地定位我， 未来的职业是学术神经科学研究

1. Abstract Sleep is a behavior that is critical for maintaining human health, and its importance is underscored by its conservation across phylogeny. Much of the research on the neural mechanisms underlying sleep has been performed in adults. However, sleep is distinctly different in young animals and may play a key role in proper development of the nervous system. Not only do young animals of nearly all species sleep more than mature adults, this sleep is deeper and more consolidated. It is thought that this longer and deeper sleep may either be a consequence of and/or contribute to the greater developmental and plastic processes occurring in the brains of young animals. However, how this sleep of young animals is regulated is poorly understood, and how it contributes to the proper development of neural circuits remains understudied. Our lab recently discovered a group of neurons that control homeostatic sleep drive in mature animals. These neurons become highly active after sleep deprivation to trigger homeostatic rebound sleep in mature animals and are both necessary and sufficient for sleep drive. Intriguingly, we also found that these sleep drive neurons are highly active at baseline in young animals. These data, along with additional preliminary findings, have led me to hypothesize that this sleep drive circuit is responsible for inducing high baseline sleep in young animals and that this circuit undergoes a developmental switch to only control homeostatic sleep rebound in adults. My additional preliminary data also suggest that loss of sleep in young animals impairs normal sleep patterns in adults. Thus, I also hypothesize that ontogenetic sleep (sleep during development) plays an important role in proper development of sleep drive circuitry. In Aim 1, I propose to study this sleep drive circuit to address the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms regulating sleep in young animals. In Aim 2, I will investigate the role of putative downstream sleep effector neurons in ontogenetic sleep and also ask whether ontogenetic sleep, in turn, affects the development of this sleep drive circuit. The experiments proposed in the above aims will help fill a significant gap in our knowledge about the neural circuitry controlling sleep throughout development. In addition, the resulting findings may deepen our understanding of the molecular and circuit principles governing generation of sleep drive more broadly. Importantly, performing this work will provide me with a strong conceptual and technical training in sleep and neural circuit analyses underlying behavior. With the support of my proposed mentorship team and the outstanding training environment, the research and training activities proposed here will ideally position me for a future career in academic neuroscience research.