identification of hypothalamic melanin concentrating hormon neural circuit involving sleep reguration.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K07140
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Animal physiology/Animal behavior
• Research Institution: Tokai University
• Principal Investigator: Terao Akira 東海大学, 札幌教養教育センター, 教授 (10451402)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 岡松 優子 北海道大学, 獣医学研究院, 講師 (90527178)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YAMANAKA AKIHIRO 名古屋大学, 環境医学研究所, 教授 (60323292)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 睡眠 / 記憶 / 絶食 / 視床下部外側野 / 海馬 / 新規物体認知試験 / 恐怖条件付け試験

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) producing neurons project widely throughout the brain, including hippocampus, and control sleep. As sleep is suggested to link to memory and the hippocampus is crucial for memory, possible involvements of MCH neurons in spatial recognition memory formation were examined. MCH neuron ablated mice spent more time for exploration of a novel object relative to a familiar object, compared to the control mice. Moreover, MCH neuron ablated mice given foot-shock-conditioned fear memory showed higher freezing rate than the control mice. On the other hand, MCH neuron ablated mice stayed almost the same time in the center square of open field arena and in the open arms of elevated plus maze, as the control mice. The findings suggest that MCH neurons control hippocampus dependent spatial recognition memory negatively. As MCH neurons are active in sleep period, there is a possibility that MCH neurons delete some memory in sleep.

Free Research Field

神経科学