Sleep, brain and behaviour laboratory
Sleep is traditionally defined and characterised by behavioural and electrophysiological criteria. For example, during sleep we are immobile and less responsive to the environment, and global cortical activity is distinctly different from an awake state. The differences between waking and sleep become less apparent as we look closer at the spatio-temporal patterns of cortical activity by recording local field potentials or neuronal spiking. It has been shown, that sleep-like patterns of neuronal activity are not uncommon during waking, even during active behaviours, and especially when the animals are drowsy or sleep-deprived. On the other hand, the main network oscillations during sleep – slow waves (~0.5-4 Hz) and spindles (~9-16 Hz) – are remarkably dynamic and idiosyncratic events, mostly occurring locally, and never encompassing the entire cortex at once. Slow waves are considered a reliable marker of preceding sleep-wake history, and a measure of sleep ‘intensity’. The ‘homeostatic principle’ postulates that the longer we stay awake, the more intense is our subsequent sleep. Recent evidence suggests that sleep homeostasis is a local process, and it has been identified both in cortical and subcortical structures, such as the dorsal striatum. Sleep spindles, which arise within the thalamocortical circuitry, also occur locally in the neocortex; and their occurrence varies greatly depending on the cortical region, the time of day and the immediate preceding state. Finally, individual cortical neurons are highly diverse with respect to the state dependency of their spiking activity, and, importantly, their response to preceding sleep-wake history. Over the last few decades our knowledge about sleep has progressed tremendously. However, the fundamental questions remain: what is ‘noise’ and what is ‘signal’ in cortical activity during sleep, and how does the global and precisely regulated state of sleep emerge from the activity (or lack thereof) of local and distributed, cortical and subcortical circuits.
In our research we use a broad range of techniques and approaches, such as behavioural tasks, electrophysiology, transgenic mouse models, local brain microstimulation and pharmacology.
Associate Professor Vladyslav Vyazovskiy is a member of Oxford University's Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute.
Video credit: Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (boredomresearch)
Video credit: University of Oxford Podcasts
Hear more from Prof Vyazovskiy on the Sleep Science Podcast Episode 4: Local sleep, circadian rhythms and torpor.
Collaborators
DPAG
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Department of Experimental Psychology
Department of Pharmacology
Department of Engineering Science
Radcliffe Department of Medicine
What's new
Lukas Krone to represent Oxford at the Global Young Scientists Summit
3 December 2020
Congratulations are in order for Dr Lukas Krone who is one of just five University of Oxford researchers selected to attend the Global Young Scientists Summit 2021.
Lukas Krone honoured by the World Sleep Society
16 October 2020
Congratulations are in order for Lukas Krone, who has been presented the 2020 Christian Guilleminault Young Investigator Award by the World Sleep Society.
Latest publications
-
Psilocin acutely disrupts sleep and affects local but not global sleep homeostasis in laboratory mice
Journal article
Thomas CW. et al, (2021)
-
Modulation of recognition memory performance by light and its relationship with cortical EEG theta and gamma activities.
Journal article
Hasan S. et al, (2021), Biochem Pharmacol
-
Unresponsive or just asleep? Do local slow waves in the perilesional cortex have a function?
Journal article
Krone LB. and Vyazovskiy VV., (2020), Brain, 143, 3513 - 3515
-
Continuous and non-invasive thermography of mouse skin accurately describes core body temperature patterns, but not absolute core temperature.
Journal article
van der Vinne V. et al, (2020), Sci Rep, 10