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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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“A Motor Theory of Sleep Control”
Yang Dan, Ph.D.
Paul Licht Distinguished Professor
Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Sleep is a fundamental biological process, and its disruption has profound impacts on human health. Using a variety of techniques including optogenetics, electrophysiology, imaging, and gene expression profiling, we identify key neurons in the sleep control circuits and map their synaptic connections. Sleep appears to be controlled by a highly distributed network spanning the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain, where REM and non-REM sleep neurons are part of the central somatic and autonomic motor circuits. The intimate association between the sleep and autonomic/somatic motor control circuits suggests that a primary function of sleep is to promote biological processes incompatible with movement.
