Mesolimbic dopamine neurons drive infradian rhythms in sleep-wake and heightened activity state.

Infradian mood and sleep-wake rhythms with periods of 48 hours and beyond have been observed in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), which even persist in the absence of exogenous timing cues, indicating an endogenous origin. Here, we show that mice exposed to methamphetamine in drinking water develop infradian locomotor rhythms with periods of 48 hours and beyond which extend to sleep length and manic state-associated behaviors in support of a model for cycling in BD. The cycling capacity is abrogated upon genetic disruption of dopamine (DA) production in DA neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) or ablation of nucleus accumbens projecting DA neurons.

The neurons that drive infradian sleep-wake and mania-like behavioral rhythms.

Infradian mood and sleep-wake rhythms with periods of 48 hr and beyond have been observed in bipolar disorder (BD) subjects that even persist in time isolation, indicating an endogenous origin. Here we show that mice exposed to methamphetamine (Meth) in drinking water develop infradian locomotor rhythms with periods of 48 hr and beyond which extend to sleep length and mania-like behaviors in support of a model for cycling in BD. This cycling capacity is abrogated upon genetic disruption of DA production in DA neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) or ablation of nucleus accumbens (NAc) projecting, dopamine (DA) neurons.

Leptin receptor-expressing pericytes mediate access of hypothalamic feeding centers to circulating leptin.

Knowledge of how leptin receptor (LepR) neurons of the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) access circulating leptin is still rudimentary. Employing intravital microscopy, we found that almost half of the blood-vessel-enwrapping pericytes in the MBH express LepR. Selective disruption of pericytic LepR led to increased food intake, increased fat mass, and loss of leptin-dependent signaling in nearby LepR neurons.

Inactograms and objective sleep measures as means to capture subjective sleep problems in patients with a bipolar disorder.

Background: Sleep problems are common in bipolar disorders (BDs). To objectively characterize these problems in BDs, further methodological development is needed to capture subjective insomnia.

Aim: To test psychometric properties of the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and associations with actigraphy-derived measures, applying modifications in actigraphy data processing to capture features of perturbed sleep in patients with a BD.

Late and Instable Sleep Phasing is Associated With Irregular Eating Patterns in Eating Disorders.

Background: Sleep problems are common in eating disorders (EDs).

Purpose: We evaluated whether sleep-phasing regularity associates with the regularity of daily eating events.

Methods: ED patients (n = 29) completed hourly charts of mood and eating occasions for 2 weeks.

Irregular eating patterns associate with hypomanic symptoms in bipolar disorders.

We present novel dimensional methods to describe the timing of eating in psychopathology. We focused on the relationship between current mood in bipolar disorder (BD) and the stability of the temporal pattern of daily eating events. Consenting BD patients ( = 69) from an outpatient, tertiary care clinic completed hourly charts of mood and eating for two weeks.

Control of Rest:Activity by a Dopaminergic Ultradian Oscillator and the Circadian Clock.

There is long-standing evidence for rhythms in locomotor activity, as well as various other aspects of physiology, with periods substantially shorter than 24 h in organisms ranging from fruit flies to humans. These ultradian oscillations, whose periods frequently fall between 2 and 6 h, are normally well integrated with circadian rhythms; however, they often lack the period stability and expression robustness of the latter. An adaptive advantage of ultradian rhythms has been clearly demonstrated for the common vole, suggesting that they may have evolved to confer social synchrony.