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Updated: Oct 16, 2025

Polygraphic Recording Procedure for Measuring Sleep in Mice
Published on: January 25, 2016
How REM sleep shapes hypothalamic computations for feeding behavior
Lukas T Oesch1, Antoine R Adamantidis2
1Zentrum für Experimentelle Neurologie, Department of Neurology, Inselspital University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Biomedical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Neurobiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Abstract:
The electrical activity of diverse brain cells is modulated across states of vigilance, namely wakefulness, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Enhanced activity of neuronal circuits during NREM sleep impacts on subsequent awake behaviors, yet the significance of their activation, or lack thereof, during REM sleep remains unclear. This review focuses on feeding-promoting cells in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) that express the vesicular GABA and glycine transporter (vgat) as a model to further understand the impact of REM sleep on neural encoding of goal-directed behavior. It emphasizes both spatial and temporal aspects of hypothalamic cell dynamics across awake behaviors and REM sleep, and discusses a role for REM sleep in brain plasticity underlying energy homeostasis and behavioral optimization.
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