Manipulating the Cellular Circadian Period of Arginine Vasopressin Neurons Alters the Behavioral Circadian Period
- Journal:
- Current Biology
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.022
- Affiliations:
- 2
- Authors:
- 3
Research Highlight
Neurons are the hands of brain cells’ internal clocks
© Kerrick/E+/Getty
Neurons that control sleeping patterns can be manipulated to lengthen or shorten daily behaviour cycles.
The part of the brain that controls the ‘circadian rhythm’ — the daily cycle of bodily functions such as sleep or bowel movements — is split into a core and shell, each containing thousands of neurons which communicate to regulate biological functions. However, the neuronal mechanisms that drive the cycle’s length are unclear.
A team led by a researcher from Kanazawa University bred mice with a protein called CK1λ that regulates circadian rhythms, removed or added to arginine vasopressin (AVP) neurons in the shell. In sustained periods of darkness, the mice lacking CK1λ had a sleep cycle some 50 minutes longer than did mice with normal levels of CK1λ, while mice with enhanced CK1λ displayed a cycle 30 minutes shorter.
These results suggest that AVP neurons are an essential cog in the brain’s internal clock that controls how much time we spend sleeping.
References
- Current Biology 26,2535–2542 (2016). doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.022
Institutions | Authors | Share |
---|---|---|
Kanazawa University (KU), Japan | 0.67 | |
RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS), Japan | 0.33 |