Progress in the study of neural circuits regulating sleep structure

On October 24, the brain atlas center of the Institute of brain cognition and brain diseases, Shenzhen Institute of advanced technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, made progress in analyzing the neural regulatory mechanism of sleep fragmentation Relevant research results "a serotonin modulated circuit controls sleep architecture to regulate coherent function independent of total sleep in Drosophila" were published in cell sub journal Current Biology The study was completed in collaboration with Leslie C Griffith, a professor at Brandeis University in the United States The first author and co-author of the paper are researcher Liu Chang The second author is Meng Zhiqiang, a senior engineer of the Nobel Prize Laboratory of the Institute of brain cognition and brain diseases, and Timothy D Wiggin, a doctor at Brandeis University Sleep has become a global issue and a major concern of the whole society At present, the research of sleep mainly focuses on the neural circuits that regulate the total amount of sleep, but little is known about the neural network that encodes the sleep quality (i.e sleep structure) independent of the total amount of sleep The rich inheritance of Drosophila, a model animal Based on the advantages of resource background, ideal brain structure and complexity of brain function, high conservation of molecular action mechanism and short life cycle, combined with the cutting-edge technology of neurobiology research, the paper not only found the neural loop regulating sleep fragmentation: signal input serotonin neuron, neural coding integration center ellipsoid (acting on 5-HT7 receptor) à signal output brain area (mushroom body, fan body, protopons); it is also found that sleep fragmentation (repeated awakening, poor sleep quality) can lead to learning impairment, while impaired learning can be restored to normal level by improving sleep quality Researchers also found that knocking out the 5-HT7 receptor or blocking its function can improve sleep quality These results set up a link between serotonin and human sleep, and 5-HT7 receptor function is highly conservative with mammals, which provides a new reference target for improving and treating sleep and cognitive disorders.