The brain connections underlying "sleep preparatory behavior" in mice have been identified by a team of researchers from Imperial College London. According to the study, humans frequently ignore or override a survival mechanism that is hard-wired to prepare for sleep. For a warm and secure place to sleep, mice's wiring in their brains causes them to start nesting before bedtime. Although people may believe they have cognitive control over the act of falling asleep, it is likely that identical brain wiring also exists in humans. The investigation was released in Nature Neuroscience.
Sleeping Like a Mouse: How Neuroscience Research Illuminates Behavio
When mice were exhausted by scientists, they discovered that it caused them to "build a nest," or, to put it another way, "get ready for bed."
The mice were made tired by the Imperial College London-led study team by giving them Lego bricks and other toys every half-hour for five hours while preventing them from taking a nap.
The researchers then used optogenetics, a technique in which certain brain cells may be made artificially active by a burst of light, to examine their behavior and brain activity after allowing the subjects to eventually fall asleep.
The prefrontal cortex, located at the top of the brain, communicated with the hypothalamus, located at the brain's base, as the mice's level of fatigue increased.
The "nest building" or "getting ready for bed" behavior in mice is triggered by the hypothalamus, which contains instincts connected to "nest building" and circuitry that initiates sleep.
According to Kyoko Tossell, a researcher at Imperial College London's Department of Life Sciences and an author of the study that was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, "in other words, when fatigue starts to wash over the mouse, the top part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) decides to implement behavior to make sure the mouse is in a safe place before going to sleep."
This "safe place" is crucial for some animals because a burrow or nest offers protection from predators.
The brain's control center, the hypothalamus, regulates several fundamental survival functions essential to the body's functioning, including eating, drinking, and sleeping, whereas the prefrontal cortex is known to aid in logical planning.
The researchers came to the conclusion that the top of the brain is wired for behavior related to preparing for sleep.
According to Bill Wisden, Chair in Molecular Neuroscience at Imperial and co-corresponding author of the paper, "The fact that this process is hard-wired in mice shows that preparing properly for sleep is a survival feature used in nature, and humans should take this aspect of their sleep seriously."
"Despite the fact that we humans may believe we have conscious control over the act of going to sleep, it is extremely possible that human brains share the same wiring as those of mice.
The same unconscious drives to get ready for bed likely control us even when we think otherwise, according to Tossell.
The group is currently working to learn more about how fatigue is actually perceived by the brain as well as what causes the prefrontal cortex cells to become active.
What are some other sleep-related studies?
