Serotonin And REM Sleep Linked To Depression

Serotonin And REM Sleep Linked To Depression

All mammals be careless, as do birds and some insects. However, in what condition this basic function is regulated through the brain remains unclear. According to a just discovered study by researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, a brain territory called the lateral habenula plays a central role in the regulation of REM sleep. In an division published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team shows that the lateral habenula maintains and regulates REM rest in rats through regulation of the serotonin regularity. This study is the first to demonstrate a role of the lateral habenula in linking serotonin metabolism and slumber.

The lateral habenula is a district of the brain known to systematize the metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain and toy a key role in cognitive functions.

"Serotonin plays a central role in the pathophysiology of indentation, however, it is not clear in what state abnormalities in regulation of serotonin metabolism in the brain be at the head of to symptoms such as insomnia in dejectedness," explain Dr. Hidenori Aizawa and Dr. Hitoshi Okamoto who led the study.

Since animals through increased serotonergic activity at the synapse able less REM sleep, the researchers hypothesized that the lateral habenula, that regulates serotonergic activity in the brain, iness modulate the duration of REM doze.

They show that removing the lateral habenula in rats results in a decrease of theta rhythm, an oscillatory nimbleness that appears during REM sleep, in the hippocampus, and shortens the rats' REM rest periods. However, this inhibitory effect of the lateral habenular morbid change on REM sleep disappears when the serotonergic neurons in the midbrain are lesioned.

The team recorded neural spryness simultaneously in the lateral habenula and hippocampus in a inactive rat. They find that the lateral habenular neurons, what one fire persistently during non-REM rest, begin to fire rhythmically in accordance with the theta rhythm in the hippocampus at the time the animal is in REM slumber.

"Our results indicate that the lateral habenula is highly important for maintaining theta rhythms in the hippocampus, which characterize REM sleep in the rat, and that this is conferred via serotonergic modulation," concludes Dr Aizawa.

"This study reveals a fresh role of the lateral habenula, linking serotonin and REM nap, which suggests that an hyperactive habenula in patients with depression may cause altered REM be motionless," add the authors.