Roberto De Luca, Stefano Nardone, Kevin P Grace, Anne Venner, Michela Cristofolini, Sathyajit S Bandaru, Lauren T Sohn, Dong Kong, Takatoshi Mochizuki, Bianca Viberti, Lin Zhu, Antonino Zito, Thomas E Scammell, Clifford B Saper, Bradford B Lowell, Patrick M Fuller, Elda Arrigoni
Humans and animals lacking orexin neurons exhibit daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, and state instability. While the circuit basis by which orexin neurons contribute to consolidated wakefulness remains unclear, existing models posit that orexin neurons provide their wake-stabilizing influence by exerting excitatory tone on other brain arousal nodes. Here we show using in vivo optogenetics, in vitro optogenetic-based circuit mapping, and single-cell transcriptomics that orexin neurons also contribute to arousal maintenance through indirect inhibition of sleep-promoting neurons of the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus...
July 18, 2022: Nature Communications