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Updated: May 21, 2026
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Quantifying Infra-slow Dynamics of Spectral Power and Heart Rate in Sleeping Mice
Published on: August 2, 2017
Respiratory pauses highlight sleep architecture in mice
Giulio Casali1, Camille Miermon1, Geoffrey Terral1
1Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, IINS, UMR 5297, Bordeaux, France.
Nature Communications
|May 19, 2026
Summary
Breathing patterns differ across brain states like wakefulness and sleep stages (REM, NREM). Respiratory features track sleep architecture and brain activity, offering new insights into neural computations during sleep.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Respiratory Physiology
- Sleep Science
Background:
- Brain activity and breathing are interconnected.
- Limited understanding of respiratory variations across sleep stages and their coordination with brain network dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how fine respiratory features vary across and within different brain states (Wake, REM, NREM).
- To explore the coordination between respiratory patterns and sleep micro-architecture, including network dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Simultaneous recordings of nasal pressure and hippocampal local field potentials in freely-moving mice.
- Analysis of respiratory signatures, including post-inhalation pauses, across wake and sleep states.
Main Results:
- Distinct respiratory signatures identified for Wake, REM, and NREM sleep, characterized by unique post-inhalation pause patterns.
- Within NREM sleep, respiratory pauses correlate with noradrenaline fluctuations and define sleep packets, including those with elevated hippocampal sigma-band power.
- Respiratory changes predict moment-to-moment fluctuations in hippocampal sigma-band power, even under hypoxia.
Conclusions:
- Respiratory features effectively capture both macro- and micro-architecture of sleep.
- Respiration serves as a novel window into understanding brain states and network computations during sleep.
