Sensory integration across the sleep-waking cycle

Interests

REM sleep and wakefulness, while fundamentally different states of consciousness, are characterized by similar electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns. But does the brain process sensory inputs in REM sleep as it does in wakefulness? To answer this question, we investigate the differences in sensorimotor integration between REM sleep and wakefulness using the somatotopically highly organized mouse somatosensory system as a model and a combination of state-of-art electrophysiological, imaging and optogenetics methods. Our experimental data feed dynamic thalamocortical computational models.

On going projects

We record brain activity to study if across the sleep waking-cycle

1) the efficient transfer of sensory information to the cortex is curtailed within the upward sensory stream

2) the cortex is in an increased state of inhibitory control, driven either locally or externally through the specific activation of corticocortical and thalamocortical connections

3) there is a global re-organization of cortical dynamics that alters perception and cognitive abilities.

4) there is a differential ongoing motor cortical activity on the sensory stream