Circadian rhythms and sleep articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    Using a Bayesian learning approach, a study tracks the spatial representations by individual hippocampal cells over time in freely moving rats, and provides insights into how ensemble patterns form and reconfigure during sleep.

    • Kourosh Maboudi
    • , Bapun Giri
    •  & Kamran Diba

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Drosophila R8 photoreceptor separates signals for image perception and circadian photoentrainment by co-releasing histamine and acetylcholine, and this segregation is further established in the postsynaptic circuitry in the medulla.

    • Na Xiao
    • , Shuang Xu
    •  & Dong-Gen Luo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Octopuses possess a distinct active sleep stage, with behavioural and neural correlates resembling vertebrate REM sleep, which may represent convergent features of complex cognition.

    • Aditi Pophale
    • , Kazumichi Shimizu
    •  & Sam Reiter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrophysiological recordings in sleeping bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) reveal a type of interhemispheric competition that is detected in the claustrum but generated in the midbrain, and only during rapid-eye-movement sleep.

    • Lorenz A. Fenk
    • , Juan Luis Riquelme
    •  & Gilles Laurent

  • Article |

    Sharp wave-ripples from the hippocampus are shown to modulate peripheral glucose homeostasis in rats, offering insights into the mechanism that links sleep disruption and blood glucose regulation in type 2 diabetes.

    • David Tingley
    • , Kathryn McClain
    •  & György Buzsáki

  • Article |

    Ablating retinal input at early postnatal stages—but not later time points—impaired entrainment to time-restricted feeding in adult mice, as did silencing intergeniculate-leaflet neurons that express neuropeptide Y and project to the central pacemaker

    • Diego Carlos Fernandez
    • , Ruchi Komal
    •  & Samer Hattar

  • Article |

    A structure homologous to the mammalian claustrum exists in reptiles and has a role in generating sharp waves in the brain during slow-wave sleep.

    • Hiroaki Norimoto
    • , Lorenz A. Fenk
    •  & Gilles Laurent

  • Article |

    Fluorescence-based polysomnography in zebrafish reveals two major sleep signatures that share features with those of amniotes, which suggests that common neural sleep signatures emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago.

    • Louis C. Leung
    • , Gordon X. Wang
    •  & Philippe Mourrain

  • Letter |

    A subset of synaptic proteins are cumulatively phosphorylated during wakefulness and dephosphorylated during sleep, in accordance with sleep need; this may represent a common mechanism underlying regulation of both synaptic homeostasis and sleep–wake homeostasis.

    • Zhiqiang Wang
    • , Jing Ma
    •  & Qinghua Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genomic and molecular analyses of Clunio marinus timing strains suggest that modulation of alternative splicing of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II represents a mechanism for evolutionary adaptation of circadian timing.

    • Tobias S. Kaiser
    • , Birgit Poehn
    •  & Kristin Tessmar-Raible

  • Article |

    Two mutations affecting the sleep–wakefulness balance in mice are detected, showing that the SIK3 protein kinase is essential for determining daily wake time, and the NALCN cation channel regulates the duration of rapid eye movement sleep.

    • Hiromasa Funato
    • , Chika Miyoshi
    •  & Masashi Yanagisawa

  • Letter |

    Sleep-promoting neurons in Drosophila are shown to switch between electrical activity and silence as a function of sleep need; the switch is operated by dopamine and involves the antagonistic regulation of two potassium channels.

    • Diogo Pimentel
    • , Jeffrey M. Donlea
    •  & Gero Miesenböck

  • Letter |

    A Drosophila chemosensory receptor, expressed in leg sensory neurons, is necessary for behavioural and molecular synchronization of the fly’s circadian clock to low-amplitude temperature cycles; this temperature-sensing pathway functions independently from the known temperature sensors of the fly’s antennae.

    • Chenghao Chen
    • , Edgar Buhl
    •  & Ralf Stanewsky

  • Outlook |

    One of sleep's most important functions is processing memory. Researchers are now starting to figure out how the brain helps us learn when we're asleep.

    • Kerri Smith

  • Outlook |

    Sleep disturbances may be an early sign of neurodegenerative diseases — but could sleep deficits cause these conditions in the first place?

    • Moheb Costandi

  • Outlook |

    Studies that restrict sleep show why a lack of shut-eye can lead to serious chronic disease.

    • Elie Dolgin

  • Outlook |

    The causal relationships between lack of sleep and mood disorders remain murky. But one thing is clear as day: better sleep can have psychological benefits.

    • Sarah DeWeerdt

  • Outlook |

    A growing body of evidence shows that getting a good night's sleep plays an important role in regulating the body's metabolism.

    • Brian Owens

  • Outlook |

    A combination of drugs and cognitive behavioural therapy may finally put an end to the misery of sleepless nights.

    • James Mitchell Crow

  • News & Views |

    Exposure to abnormal light–dark cycles causes depression-like behaviour and learning deficits in mice. The defects seem to occur independently of disturbances to sleep and other processes regulated by the biological clock. See Letter p.594

    • Lisa M. Monteggia
    •  & Ege T. Kavalali

  • News |

    Brain scans during sleep can decode visual content of dreams.

    • Mo Costandi

  • News & Views |

    In the laboratory, fruitflies rely on an internal clock to alternate activity with a midday nap and night-time sleep. Surprisingly, when outdoors, they follow temperature rather than the clock, and skip siestas. See Letter p.371

    • François Rouyer

  • Letter |

    Behavioural, neurogenetic and molecular studies of circadian 24-hour rhythms in fruitflies kept in semi-confinement outdoors challenge our established laboratory-based views of the relative importance of sources of rhythmic entrainment, including temperature, photoperiod and moonlight, as well as the role of some of the underlying clock genes in regulating circadian behaviour in the wild.

    • Stefano Vanin
    • , Supriya Bhutani
    •  & Charalambos P. Kyriacou

  • Letter |

    The nuclear receptors REV-ERB-α and REV-ERB-β are indispensible for the coordination of circadian rhythm and metabolism; mice without these nuclear receptors show disrupted circadian expression of core circadian clock and lipid homeostatic gene networks.

    • Han Cho
    • , Xuan Zhao
    •  & Ronald M. Evans

  • Article |

    Synthetic REV-ERB agonists can alter the circadian expression of core clock genes in the hypothalami of mice, which changes the expression of metabolic genes in liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, and results in increased energy expenditure.

    • Laura A. Solt
    • , Yongjun Wang
    •  & Thomas P. Burris

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