2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Will-dynamics of REM sleep and appetite
Publicly Offered Research
| Project Area | Creation and Promotion of the Will-Dynamics |
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| Project/Area Number |
17H06047
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
ラザルス ミハエル 筑波大学, 国際統合睡眠医科学研究機構, 准教授 (80469650)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | レム睡眠 / 食欲 / 意志動力学 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
It is not well understood what role sleep loss plays in affecting areas of the brain that control the desire to consume unhealthy foods. Our work finds that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep loss leads to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, specifically sucrose and fat. We used a new method to produce REM sleep loss in mice along with a chemical-genetic technique to block prefrontal cortex neurons and the behaviors they mediate. As a result, we discovered that inhibiting these neurons reversed the effect of REM sleep loss on sucrose consumption while having no effect on fat consumption (McEown K, et al. eLife, 5:e20269, 2016). Our work is the first attempt to establish an animal model on this subject.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We published a short report about our initial findings in the prestigious journal eLife.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
- We will track the activity of mPFC neurons during sleep/wake behavior by in-vivo Ca-imaging.
- We plan to elucidate by chemogenetics whether the activity of mPFC neurons that are needed for increased sucrose consumption by REM sleep loss is controlled by pontine mPFC-projecting cholinergic (PPT/LDT) neurons that are active during REM sleep.
- We plan to elucidate by chemogenetics whether the activity of mPFC neurons that are needed for increased sucrose consumption by REM sleep loss is controlled by midbrain mPFC-projecting dopaminergic neurons that are activated by motivational stimuli during wake
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