Influence of hypnogenic brain areas on wakefulness- and rapid-eye-movement sleep-related neurons in the brainstem of freely moving cats

Abstract

Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is normally preceded by non-REM sleep; however, every non-REM sleep episode is not followed by REM sleep. It has been proposed that, for the regulation of REM sleep, the brain areas modulating waking and non-REM sleep are likely to communicate with neurons promoting REM sleep. The former has been reported earlier, and in this study the latter has been investigated. Under surgical anaesthesia, cats were prepared for electrophysiological recording of sleep-wakefulness and electrical stimulation of caudal brainstem as well as preopticoanterior hypothalamic hypnogenic areas. Insulated microwires of 25-32 microm were used to record 52 single neuronal activities from the brainstem along with bipolar electroencephalogram, electromyogram, electrooculogram, and pontogeniculooccipital waves in freely moving, normally behaving cats. The neurons were classified into five groups based on changes in firing rates associated with different sleep-waking states compared with quiet wakefulness. Thereafter, the responses of these neurons to 1-Hz stimulation of the two non-REM sleep-promoting areas were studied. At the end of experiment, the stimulating and recording sites were histologically identified. It was observed that, among the affected neurons, the caudal brainstem non-REM sleep-promoting area excited more REM-on neurons, whereas the preopticoanterior hypothalamus hypnogenic area inhibited more awake-active neurons. Thus, the results suggest that, at the single neuronal level, the caudal brainstem non-REM sleep-modulating area, rather than the preopticoanterior hypothalamic hypnogenic area in the brain, plays a modulatory role in triggering REM sleep initiation at a certain depth of sleep.