Editor's Summary

15 November 2007

Sleepers awake

A paper published in Nature in April raised the intriguing possibility that optical therapies might be developed to treat neurological disorders. That work, in tissue slices and in C. elegans roundworms, showed that brain cells can be genetically engineered to alter their activity in response to pulses of different colours of light. A follow-up study now shows that behaviour can be modified in a living mammal by similar means. Hypocretin (Hcrt)-producing neurons in the hypothalamus are active during transitions from sleep to waking states. Optical stimulation of mouse Hcrt neurons engineered to respond to light increases the likelihood of transition from sleep to wakefulness, with higher frequencies causing more abrupt awakening. As Hcrt deficiency is linked to narcolepsy, these results may provide insights into sleep disorders.

Letter: Neural substrates of awakening probed with optogenetic control of hypocretin neurons

Antoine R. Adamantidis, Feng Zhang, Alexander M. Aravanis, Karl Deisseroth & Luis de Lecea

doi:10.1038/nature06310

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