In mice, the brain’s main glial cell type exhibits distinctive patterns of activity across the sleep-wake cycle and influences the response to sleep deprivation.
The gene, aquaporin-4, is critical in rodents for the cerebrospinal fluid bath the brain gets during sleep. It’s now also tied to slow wave electrical activity during deep sleep in people.
After an accident as a teenager, he developed the disorder. He then studied the brain to better understand his own seizures, and now plans to sail around the world to show others with the condition how to push their limits.
People who have suffered traumatic brain injury had slower reaction times and more false starts after disrupted sleep than healthy controls, according to a study presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting.
Researchers have identified a gene that ties sleeping patterns to the winter blues experienced by many people living at extreme northern and southern latitudes.