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Subcutaneous administration of nicotine changes dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons discharge rate during REM sleep
R Guzmán-Marín1, M N Alam, S Mihailescu
1Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70-250, 04510, D.F., México, Mexico.
Brain Research
|January 11, 2001
Abstract:
In the present study nicotine (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.) increased discharge rate of putative dorsal raphe (DRN) serotonergic neurons of behaving rats during REM sleep (362.61%), without any significant change during waking and non-REM sleep. Since serotonergic DRN neurons gate PGO onset, these results suggest that nicotine-induced suppression of PGO spikes during REM sleep previously reported is achieved through stimulation of dorsal raphe serotonergic cells.