The most common form of sleep disturbance among both patients with autism spectrum disorders and patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is sleep-onset insomnia, but the neuronal mechanisms underlying it have yet to be elucidated and no specific treatment strategy has been proposed. This means that many caregivers struggle to manage this problem on a daily basis. This paper prese...

Neuron populations of the lateral hypothalamus which synthesize the orexin (OX)/hypocretin or melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) peptides play crucial, reciprocal roles in regulating wake stability and sleep. The disease human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also called sleeping sickness, caused by extracellular Trypanosoma brucei (T. b.) parasites, leads to characteristic sleep-wake cycle disr...

We examined the effect of chronic prenatal alcohol exposure on certain neuronal systems involved with the sleep-wake cycle of C57BL/6J mice exposed to prenatal alcohol once they had reached 56 days post-natal. Pregnant mice were exposed to alcohol, through oral gavage, on gestational days 7-16, with recorded blood alcohol concentration (BAC)s averaging 1.84 mg/ml (chronic alcohol group, CA). Tw...

BACKGROUND The importance of neonatal experience upon behaviour in later life is increasingly recognised. The overlap between pain and reward pathways led us to hypothesise that neonatal pain experience influences reward-related pathways and behaviours in adulthood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Rat pups received repeat plantar skin incisions (neonatal IN) or control procedures (neonatal ane...

Both the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the extrahypothalamic brain stress system are key elements of the neural circuitry that regulates the negative states during abstinence from chronic drug exposure. Orexins have recently been hypothesized to modulate the extended amygdala and to contribute to the negative emotional state associated with dependence. This study examined the im...

It is widely accepted that orexin (hypocretin) bears wake-promoting effects. While under normal conditions the circadian rhythm of orexin release has a clear circadian distribution, the amplitude of orexin fluctuation is dampened in depression. Interestingly, clinical symptoms of depression include several sleep disturbances. In this disease, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) seems to be an...

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive drug in the world. It is a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist that in the brain targets mainly adenosine A1 and A2A receptors. The same as classical psychostimulants, caffeine produces motor-activating, reinforcing and arousing effects. This depends on the ability of caffeine to counteract multiple effects of adenosine in the central ascending...