TUBEROMAMMILLARY NUCLEUS AND SLEEP/WAKE REGULATION

描述（申请人摘要）：长期的研究表明，吻侧下丘脑促进睡眠，而尾侧下丘脑促进清醒。我的研究顾问最近发现腹外侧视前区（VLPO）的神经元可能有助于下丘脑吻侧睡眠促进作用。这些神经元发送抑制性投射到下丘脑尾侧结构，结节乳头核（TMN）。TMN的作用尚不清楚，但我们提出，它促进觉醒，它反过来又向VLPO发送抑制性投射，从而定义了一个在睡眠和唤醒促进结构之间具有相互拮抗作用的回路。这个模型表明，睡眠-觉醒状态是由一对竞争的神经系统定义的，并对睡眠-觉醒调节障碍如嗜睡症有影响。

DESCRIPTION (applicant's abstract): A long history of studies have suggested that the rostral hypothalamus promotes sleep, while the caudal hypothalamus promotes waking. My research advisor recently identified neurons in the ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO) that may subserve the rostral hypothalamic sleep-promoting role. These neurons send inhibitory projections to a caudal hypothalamic structure, the tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN). The role of the TMN is unclear, but we propose that it promotes waking, and that it in turn sends inhibitory projections to the VLPO, thus defining a circuit with mutual antagonism between sleep and wake-promoting structures. This model suggests that the sleep-wake state is defined by a pair of competing neural systems, and has implications for disorders of sleep-wake regulation such as narcolepsy.