[Progress in our understanding of the architecture of paradoxical sleep since William Dement and Michel Jouvet].
Paradoxical or REM sleep, characterized by cortical activation combined with muscle atonia and rapid eye movements, was discovered at the end of the 1950s by Michel Jouvet and William C. Dement. Studies over the next twenty years suggested that the onset and maintenance of paradoxical sleep was due to a reciprocal inhibitory interaction between monoaminergic neurons inhibiting PS and cholinergic neurons generating PS located in a small part of the pontine reticular formation called the sublaterodorsal tegmental nucleus. Our recent studies rather indicate that these neurons are respectively GABAergic and glutamatergic. Further, they suggest that three populations of GABAergic neurons and population of hypothalamic neurons expressing melanin concentrating hormone, a peptide, play a important role in PS control.
UMR 5292, CNRS/U1028 INSERM, Université Lyon I Faculté de médecine Laennec, 7, rue Guillaume Paradin - 69372 Lyon. luppi@sommeil.univ-lyon1
Pierre-Hervé
PH
Luppi
D001933:Brain Stem / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007028:Hypothalamic Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D008543:Melanins / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010907:Pituitary Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
D007028:Hypothalamic Hormones; D008543:Melanins; D010907:Pituitary Hormones; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; C019463:melanin-concentrating hormone