Sleep scoring in rodents: Criteria, automatic approaches and outstanding issues

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Sleep Science
• Comparative Physiology

Background:

• Sleep is a fundamental biological process, yet its precise function remains unknown.
• Rodent models are crucial for mechanistic sleep research due to experimental accessibility.
• Current rodent sleep research lacks standardized definitions for sleep states, unlike human sleep research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of human and rodent sleep stages.
• To present a historical perspective on the development of automatic sleep scoring systems in rodents.
• To identify and discuss issues in rodent sleep research standards.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of human and rodent sleep studies.
• Historical analysis of sleep scoring system development.
• Comparative analysis of sleep stage definitions and scoring methodologies.

Main Results:

• Established differences exist in sleep stage definitions between humans and rodents.
• The evolution of automatic sleep scoring in rodents has faced challenges in standardization.
• Specific inconsistencies in rodent sleep research raise questions about the applicability of human sleep standards.

Conclusions:

• Standardizing rodent sleep states is critical for advancing sleep research.
• Re-evaluating current human sleep research standards may be necessary based on rodent model findings.
• Further research is needed to reconcile human and rodent sleep paradigms for a comprehensive understanding of sleep's function.