Inducing non-REM sleep in mice by novel optogenetical control technique
Recently, optogenetics, which controls the activity of neuron using the light-activated protein, has been getting a lot of attention. This light-activated protein works like a switch of neurons by sensing specific color of light. This time, Associate Professor Akihiro YAMANAKA and Dr. Tomomi Tsunematsu from National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), succeeded in suppressing only the activity of the orexin neurons in the mice's brains (hypothalamus) when the optical switch was on, using the light-activated protein, halorhodopsin (eNpHR). This flipping on and off the optical switch led mice into sleep and wakefulness. Those mice fell into non-REM sleep (slow-wave sleep) only when the halorhodopsin-expressed orexin neurons were exposed to the light. It is reported in the Journal of Neuroscience published by the Society for Neuroscience in USA (July 20, 2011, Eastern Standard Time, USA) .