A specific circuit in the midbrain detects stress and induces restorative sleep.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35771921.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abn0853 and PMC identifier 7612951.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
In mice, social defeat stress (SDS), an ethological model for psychosocial stress, induces sleep. Such sleep could enable resilience, but how stress promotes sleep is unclear. Activity-dependent tagging revealed a subset of ventral tegmental area γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-somatostatin (VTA<i><sup>Vgat-Sst</sup></i>) cells that sense stress and drive non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep through the lateral hypothalamus and also inhibit corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) release in the paraventricular hypothalamus. Transient stress enhances the activity of VTA<i><sup>Vgat-Sst</sup></i> cells for several hours, allowing them to exert their sleep effects persistently. Lesioning of VTA<i><sup>Vgat-Sst</sup></i> cells abolished SDS-induced sleep; without it, anxiety and corticosterone concentrations remained increased after stress. Thus, a specific circuit allows animals to restore mental and body functions by sleeping, potentially providing a refined route for treating anxiety disorders.
Medical subject headings
- Resilience, Psychological
- Sleep
- Social Defeat
- Stress, Psychological
- Ventral Tegmental Area