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SLEEP

Cortical norepinephrine GRABs a seat at the sleep table

Nature Neuroscience volume 25, pages 978–980 (2022)Cite this article

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A new study shows that infra-slow cortical norepinephrine oscillations shape the micro-structure of sleep and transitions to micro-arousals, wakefulness or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Prolonged descending phases of these oscillations promote the occurrence of spindle-rich intermediate sleep, which is involved in memory consolidation.

Sleep is a temporary and reversible loss of consciousness and is present throughout the animal kingdom. A common assumption is that for such a vulnerable state to have been preserved throughout evolution, it must sustain functions that are absolutely crucial for the survival of the individual. Indeed, sleep has been shown to be involved in the health and maintenance of most bodily and cognitive functions, including memory. This role of sleep is likely to have co-evolved with safeguards that allow quick arousal in case of danger. Wakefulness, REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep, and the transitions between these brain states, are under the tight control of a complex network of structures and neuromodulatory systems, including noradrenergic neuromodulation controlled by the locus coeruleus (LC)1. The norepinephrine (NE) neurotransmission system is crucial for the control of arousal and is the main target of many wake- and sleep-promoting medications2. In addition to REM and NREM states, sleep has a fine micro-architecture that includes very brief awakenings interspersed within NREM sleep, called micro-arousals. Excessive micro-arousals that lead to pathological fragmentation of sleep impair memory performance3, but micro-arousals have also been shown to contribute to the homeostatic maintenance of cortical firing rates4. How the micro-architecture of sleep and the fluctuations in arousal levels affect sleep-dependent cognitive processes is still under investigation. In this issue of Nature Neuroscience, Kjaerby et al5. report correlational and causal evidence that, in mice, LC-mediated NE neurotransmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in shaping sleep micro-architecture and thereby influences memory consolidation.

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Fig. 1: Schematic representation of sleep architecture orchestration by NE-mediated mPFC activity.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Fyssen Foundation and an EMBO post-doctoral fellowhip (J.F.M.), an ATIP-Avenir grant, Emergence(s) Ville de Paris, a NARSAD BBRF Young Investigator Award and the FSER (Fondations Schlumberger pour la Recherche et l’Education) (G.G.).

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  1. Institut du Fer à Moulin, UMRS 1270, Inserm, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

    Juan Facundo Morici & Gabrielle Girardeau

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  1. Juan Facundo Morici
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  2. Gabrielle Girardeau
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Correspondence to Gabrielle Girardeau.

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Morici, J.F., Girardeau, G. Cortical norepinephrine GRABs a seat at the sleep table. Nat Neurosci 25, 978–980 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01117-2

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