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.
Video credit: Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (boredomresearch).
Our team
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Vladyslav Vyazovskiy
Associate Professor of Neuroscience
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Laura McKillop
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Vincent van der Vinne
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Cristina Blanco Duque
Postgraduate Student
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Martin Kahn
Postgraduate Student
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Lukas B. Krone
Wellcome Trust Doctoral Student in Neuroscience
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Yige Huang
MRC/Stroke Association Joint-Funded Clinical Research Training Fellow
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Christopher Thomas
Postgraduate Student
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Linus Milinski
Postgraduate student
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Alberto Lazari
Postgraduate Student
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Jose Prius Mengual
Postdoctoral Researcher in Sleep Neurobiology
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Sian Wilcox
Postgraduate Student
Affiliated members
Postgraduate Student
Postgraduate Student
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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
Cristina Blanco Duque is a CSF 2019 Award Winner
7 November 2019
Congratulations are in order for Wellcome Trust doctoral student Cristina Blanco Duque, the winner of the Travel Award and the Award for Best Contribution at the International Conference of Advanced Sleep Modulation Technologies.
DPAG Researchers participate at the Parliamentary launch of The Physiological Society's new ageing report
18 October 2019
The new Physiological Society report "Growing Older, Better" highlights physiology's role in meeting the UK Government's healthy ageing mission. Associate Professor Vladyslav Vyazovskiy and Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Fellow Laura McKillop contributed a research spotlight at the report's launch at the Houses of Parliament.
Latest publications
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GABAergic medial septal neurons with low-rhythmic firing innervating the dentate gyrus and hippocampal area CA3.
Journal article
Salib M. et al, (2019), J Neurosci
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Sleep- and Wake-Like States in Small Networks In Vivo and In Vitro.
Journal article
McKillop LE. and Vyazovskiy VV., (2019), Handb Exp Pharmacol, 253, 97 - 121
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Effects of circadian misalignment on sleep in mice.
Journal article
Hasan S. et al, (2018), Sci Rep, 8
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'Waking at a lower cost': running wheel access reduces sleep propensity
Conference paper
Milinski L. et al, (2018), JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH, 27