Polygraphic evidence against a critical role of the raphe nuclei in sleep in the rat.
The role of the raphe nuclei (RN) in sleep and waking has been investigated in 35 male Wistar rats. After an habituation period to their environment, the rats were continuously recorded (24 h/day), during a 5 day period prior to the lesioning of one or several RN and thereafter during 22 days. The daily slow wave sleep (SWS) and paradoxical sleep (PS) amounts from the 18th to the 22nd day after the lesion were used to classify the rats. Most of the lesions of the RN had no effect, or only transient ones, upon sleep whereas some rats with a long-lasting decrease in both sleep stages had no lesions at the level of the RN. Specific PS alterations were observed after lesions around the A 10 area and specific SWS alterations occur following lesions in the lateral part of the periaqueductal central gray at the level of the rostral end of nucleus raphe dorsalis (RD).
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011903:Raphe Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012890:Sleep