Journal of Neurophysiology, Vol 71, Issue 1 95-109, Copyright © 1994 by APS

ARTICLES

Neuronal activity in the caudolateral peribrachial pons: relationship to PGO waves and rapid eye movements

S. Datta and J. A. Hobson
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

1. The present study was performed to examine the hypothesis that the caudolateral peribrachial area (C-PBL) may be directly involved in shifting the brain from the nonpontogeniculooccipital (non-PGO)-related states of waking (W) and slow-wave sleep (S) to the PGO-related states of slow-wave sleep with PGO waves (SP) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. 2. To test this hypothesis at the cellular level, we have recorded a sample of 226 spontaneously discharging units of the C-PBL during natural sleep-waking cycles in unanesthetized head-restrained cats and have correlated the action-potential data with the PGO waves. 3. Of these 226 cells, 67.26% (n = 152) were called PGO state-on units because they increased or began firing 15-5 s before the first PGO wave of SP and maintained their high firing rate throughout SP (31.30 +/- 6.0 Hz, mean +/- SD) and REM sleep (39.46 +/- 6.70 Hz); their firing rates in W (0.45 +/- 0.85) and S (0.70 +/- 1.26) were much lower. Among these PGO state-on neurons, 28.94% (n = 44) discharged high-frequency (> 500 Hz) spike bursts on the background of tonically increased firing rates during the PGO-related states. Contrastingly, 14.16% (n = 32) of the cells (called PGO state-off units) fired tonically during W (11.54 +/- 4.15) and S (9.43 +/- 3.87) but stopped or decreased firing 25-15 s before the first PGO wave of SP; their activity remained suppressed throughout SP (0.19 +/- 0.44) and REM sleep (0.03 +/- 0.17). The remaining 18.58% (n = 42) cells fired (9-10 Hz) tonically but were unrelated to the wake-sleeping cycle. 4. During SP and REM sleep, primary PGO waves were found to appear with equal frequency in each lateral geniculate body (LGB). During REM sleep these primary waves were ipsilateral to the direction of phasic rapid eye movements as previously reported by Nelson et al. (1983). 5. During SP and REM sleep PGO state-on burst cells fired high-frequency bursts on a background of tonic activity in association with each ipsilateral primary LGB PGO wave. The first spike of a burst preceded the beginning of the negative component of the ipsilateral LGB PGO waves by 25 +/- 7.5 ms. On the basis of their sustained firing and the latency of their PGO-related bursting, we call these neurons long-lead PGO-on burst-tonic cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Marquez-Ruiz and M. Escudero Tonic and phasic phenomena underlying eye movements during sleep in the cat J. Physiol., July 15, 2008; 586(14): 3461 - 3477. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. R. Nelson, M. Mattingly, S. A. Lee, and F. A. Schmitt Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience? Neurology, April 11, 2006; 66(7): 1003 - 1009. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Takakusaki, K. Takahashi, K. Saitoh, H. Harada, T. Okumura, Y. Kayama, and Y. Koyama Orexinergic projections to the cat midbrain mediate alternation of emotional behavioural states from locomotion to cataplexy J. Physiol., November 1, 2005; 568(3): 1003 - 1020. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. T. Smith, M. R. Nixon, and R. S. Nader Posttraining increases in REM sleep intensity implicate REM sleep in memory processing and provide a biological marker of learning potential Learn. Mem., November 1, 2004; 11(6): 714 - 719. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Ulloor, V. Mavanji, S. Saha, D. F. Siwek, and S. Datta Spontaneous REM Sleep Is Modulated By the Activation of the Pedunculopontine Tegmental GABAB Receptors in the Freely Moving Rat J Neurophysiol, April 1, 2004; 91(4): 1822 - 1831. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Datta, V. Mavanji, J. Ulloor, and E. H. Patterson Activation of Phasic Pontine-Wave Generator Prevents Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Deprivation-Induced Learning Impairment in the Rat: A Mechanism for Sleep-Dependent Plasticity J. Neurosci., February 11, 2004; 24(6): 1416 - 1427. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. A. Ioannides, M. Corsi-Cabrera, P. B.C. Fenwick, Y. del Rio Portilla, N. A. Laskaris, A. Khurshudyan, D. Theofilou, T. Shibata, S. Uchida, T. Nakabayashi, et al. MEG Tomography of Human Cortex and Brainstem Activity in Waking and REM Sleep Saccades Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2004; 14(1): 56 - 72. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Datta Avoidance Task Training Potentiates Phasic Pontine-Wave Density in the Rat: A Mechanism for Sleep-Dependent Plasticity J. Neurosci., November 15, 2000; 20(22): 8607 - 8613. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Datta and D. F. Siwek Excitation of the Brain Stem Pedunculopontine Tegmentum Cholinergic Cells Induces Wakefulness and REM Sleep J Neurophysiol, June 1, 1997; 77(6): 2975 - 2988. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]