title: Trauma exposure and sleep: using a rodent model to understand sleep function in PTSD.
abstract: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by intrusive memories of a traumatic event, avoidance behavior related to cues of the trauma, emotional numbing, and hyper-arousal. Sleep abnormalities and nightmares are core symptoms of this disorder. In this review, we propose a model which implicates abnormal activity in the locus coeruleus (LC), an important modifier of sleep-wake regulation, as the source of sleep abnormalities and memory abnormalities seen in PTSD. Abnormal LC activity may be playing a key role in symptom formation in PTSD via sleep dysregulation and suppression of hippocampal bidirectional plasticity.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Vanderheyden
authors.forename: Gina R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Poe
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Liberzon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008125:Locus Coeruleus / Q000503:physiopathology; D012377:Rodentia; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications*