Rapid eye movement sleep is initiated by basolateral amygdala dopamine signaling in mice

Dopamine causes switches between sleeping modes

31 August 2022

The neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible for switching the mouse brain between the two main modes of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep.

In all animals, sleep alternates between REM sleep, which is associated with dreams and memory consolidation, and non-REM sleep. But it hadn’t been clear what causes the brain to switch between these two modes.

Now, a team led by researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan has shown that temporary blips in dopamine levels in the basolateral amygdala, a region of the brain associated with emotion, flips the switch between the two sleeping modes in mice.

The researchers were able to induce mice to go from non-REM to REM sleep by artificially activating dopamine-receptor-expressing neurons in this region.

This finding will help inform research into sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, which is characterized by sudden sleep attacks.

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References

1. Science 375, 994–1000 (2022). doi: 10.1126/science.abl6618