Nat Commun : Zhang Jun group reveals the important role of the hypothalamus orexin nervous system in THE maintenance of REM sleep stability.

As an important steady state center in the brain, !---- the hypothalamus plays an important role in the regulation of the sleep/wake cycle.discovered in 1998 that the hypothalamus orexin nin-peptide nervous system is one of the "stars" and its important position in the regulation of behavior associated with awakening and awakening periods is determined by the discovery.but early in clinical studies have been noted in patients with orexin defects, in addition to wakefulness maintenance disorders, sleep disorders, especially REM sleep behavior disorders are often occurred, and what is the neural mechanism? Zhang Jun, a research group in the Department of Physiology and Research at the Basic Medical College of the Army Military Medical University (formerly the Third Military Medical University), published a study in communications magazine entitled Orexin Signaling Modulates synced excitation in the sublaterodorsal tegmental quis to REM sleep, which was first clearly reported on the direct involvement of the hypothalamus orexin nervous system in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep regulation, and the resolution of the system's molecular and neuro-neuro-mechanism.Zhang Jun's team first described the direct neural pathways in the hypothalamus orexin-brain stem REM sleep control core blue spot nucleus (SLD), and the neural pathway seisciated REM-sleep-related activities; Affecting the overall SLD neuron network activity and enhancing its output efficiency, on this basis, with the help of new neural pathway manipulation technology such as photo/chemical genetics, it was found that the activity and effect of the pathway in the physical conditions, although not directly gated (gate) SLD-mediated REM sleep, but the stability of REM sleep maintenance is very important, the absence of this pathway leads to the occurrence of phetype similar to REM sleep behavior disorder.the neural mechanisms of the hypothalamus orexin nervous system, which are involved in both awakening maintenance and REM sleep regulation, will promote our understanding of how the brain works, suggesting that the central nervous system, especially the hypothalamus steady state center, may be unified through the coordinated control of a body's physiological functions.the entire study was completed at the Army Military Medical University and supported by the School Brain and Intelligence Research Institute (formerly the Center for Collaborative Innovation in Brain Science) "Public Platform for Brain Science". Feng Hui, a 2017 master's degree in physiology at the Army Medical University in, is the first author of the paper, and Dr. Yang Nian, director of the Department of Physiology, Basic Medical College of the Army Military Medical University, is the co-author of the thesis..