![]() We found that in the gut, there was an increase in oxidizing molecules, and the peak of oxidation correlated with the inflection point where the flies started to die. To investigate this further, we stained different organs in sleep-deprived flies with markers of cell damage. ![]() There seemed to be an inflection point where sleep loss was associated with death, which told us that there might be something specific happening in the body as opposed to general wear and tear. What mattered was the amount of sleep lost. Interestingly, the mode of sleep deprivation did not matter. We found that fruit flies who slept less had shorter lifespans: We saw a correlation where the more sleep the flies lost, the faster they died. HMNews: In your 2020 Cell paper, you tackled the question of why sleep is necessary for survival. Fruit flies allow us to test a lot of hypotheses quickly and do large, unbiased genetic screens, and then we can test what we find out in flies in mice, which, as mammals, are more similar to humans. When I started my lab, we were only using fruit flies as a model system to study sleep, but we have since been able to establish a mouse model as well. However, over the last two and a half decades, scientists have come to realize that fruit flies sleep and more recently, we figured out that the genes that regulate sleep in flies are conserved in mice. Rogulja: Historically, a lot of sleep research has been done on humans, but those experiments tend to be limited and descriptive, because you can’t really do experimentation on humans. HMNews: What tools do you use to study sleep? When you go to sleep, your muscles relax, your circulation changes. We have found that we really need to think about the whole body to understand sleep. To solve the biggest mysteries in neuroscience, we need to take a more integrated approach, which is what my lab is trying to do for sleep. I’m still shocked by the degree to which neuroscientists tend to think about the brain as having superiority over the body and being at the top of a hierarchy. ![]() Our research tells us that we need to stop thinking about the brain separately from the body when it comes to sleep. To us, this really suggested that sleep is about more than just the brain. On the other hand, clinical data show that sleep deprivation in humans leads to all kinds of diseases in the body. However, researchers have looked at the brains of sleep-deprived animals to try to find a reason why they die, and they haven’t found anything. Then, as animals became more complex, these brain-related purposes of sleep evolved. These animals had no brain they only had a very simple nervous system. Sleep is a super old behavior that we think originated in the earliest animals. However, we are now realizing that while sleep may be for the brain, it’s not just for the brain. As a result, research has largely focused on the brain in terms of looking for reasons why sleep is necessary for survival. Rogulja: For a long time, scientists have been guided by the principle that sleep is of the brain, by the brain, and for the brain. HMNews: How has your research changed how you think about sleep? Sleep is one unified state, but it seems to have multiple components that are regulated through separate mechanisms. How are stimuli prevented from reaching your brain during sleep? Elevating the threshold for sensory arousal is essential for sleep, and we want to understand how that barrier is built around the brain. Why is it that if you don’t sleep, you will literally die after not too long? The other question is how your brain disconnects from the environment when you fall asleep. The first is why sleep is necessary for survival. Rogulja: There are two main questions that my lab has been pursuing for the past several years. ![]() Harvard Medicine News: What are you studying in the context of sleep? In a conversation with Harvard Medicine News, Rogulja delved into the details of her sleep research, which uses fruit flies and mice to explore why we need to sleep and how we disconnect from the world during sleep. Harvard COVID-19 Information: Keep Harvard Healthyįor Rogulja, an associate professor of neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, an intriguing aspect of sleep is the loss of consciousness and awareness it brings, as the outside world disappears and the inner world takes over.Research Departments, Centers, Initiatives and more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |