OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND Major cardiovascular events frequently increase in the morning due to abrupt changes in the sympatho-vagal cardiac control during the transition from sleep to wakefulness. These neural changes are translated into stepwise increases in cardiac functions, resulting in a potential cardiovascular stress. Here, we explored whether light can "optimize" heart rate and its neural c...

BACKGROUND Whether loss of wakefulness itself can influence pharyngeal dilator muscle activity and responsiveness is currently unknown. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the isolated impact of sleep on upper airway muscle activity after minimising respiratory/mechanical inputs. METHODS Ten healthy subjects were studied. Genioglossus (GG), tensor palatini (TP) and diaphragm (DIA) elec...

Manfridi, Alfredo, Dario Brambilla, and Mauro Mancia. Stimulation of NMDA and AMPA receptors in the rat nucleus basalis of Meynert affects sleep. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 46): R1488–R1492, 1999.—The nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM), a heterogeneous area in the basal forebrain involved in the modulation of sleep and wakefulness, is rich in glutamate receptors, a...

The oral part of the pontine reticular formation (PnO) is a component of the ascending reticular activating system and plays a role in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. The PnO receives glutamatergic and GABAergic projections from many brain regions that regulate behavioral state. Indirect, pharmacological evidence has suggested that glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling within the PnO a...

While dopamine affects fundamental brain processes such as movement control, emotional responses, addiction, and pain, the roles for this neurotransmitter in regulating wakefulness and sleep are incompletely understood. Genetically modified animal models with reduced dopamine clearance exhibit hypersensitivity to caffeine, reduced-responsiveness to modafinil, and increased homeostatic response ...

BACKGROUND To improve the performance of simplified sleep studies, it is essential to properly estimate the sleep time. OBJECTIVES Our aim is to estimate sleep efficiency on the basis of flow breathing signal characteristics. METHODS Twenty subjects with sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome diagnosed by polysomnography were studied. A characteristic pattern of flow signal defined our criteria for ...

Frontal and parietal regions are associated with some of the most complex cognitive functions, and several frontoparietal resting-state networks can be observed in wakefulness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired in polysomnographically validated wakefulness, light sleep, and slow-wave sleep to examine the hierarchical structure of a low-frequency functional brain networ...

The present work is the first in a series of studies designed to examine the role of a brainstem GABAergic system in the control of the behavioral states of sleep and wakefulness. GABA, muscimol (a GABAA receptor agonist) and bicuculline methiodide (a GABAA receptor antagonist) were microinjected, separately, into the nucleus pontis oralis (NPO) in three chronic, unanesthetized cats. The effect...

Wakefulness and sleep are accompanied by changes in behavior and neural activity, as well as by the upregulation of different functional categories of genes. However, the mechanisms responsible for such state-dependent changes in gene expression are unknown. Here we investigate to what extent state-dependent changes in gene expression depend on the central noradrenergic (NA) system, which is ac...

One of the most frequent reasons of occurrence of errors at professional work performance is the critical decrease in the level of wakefulness of the operator. It is shown that the parity between the size of the decrease in the level of wakefulness and the probability of errors has a nonlinear character, and development of a drowsy condition can influence differently on various cognitive functi...