Oxygen consumption rate of flatworms under the influence of wake- and sleep-promoting neurotransmitters.

Flatworms are among the best studied animal models for regeneration; however, they also represent an emerging opportunity to investigate other biological processes as well. For instance, flatworms are nocturnal and sleep during the day, a state that is regulated by sleep/wake history and the action of the sleep-promoting neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (or GABA). Sleep is widespread across the animal kingdom, where it serves many nonexclusive functions.

Persistence of Nocturnality in Decapitated and Bisected Flatworms.

The ability of flatworms to regenerate entire brain structures, and indeed much of their body from mere fragments of the whole animal, presents the unique opportunity to observe the development of day-night rhythms in adult animals. In many animals, young are arrhythmic, and their species-specific timing of activity develops as the animal matures. In this study, we created two flatworm cohorts, housed in isolation, that were regenerating either (1) the brain in a decapitated animal, or (2) major body structures in a bisected, tailless animal.

Why study sleep in flatworms?

The behaviors that characterize sleep have been observed across a broad range of different species. While much attention has been placed on vertebrates (mostly mammals and birds), the grand diversity of invertebrates has gone largely unexplored. Here, we introduce the intrigue and special value in the study of sleeping platyhelminth flatworms.

Pyjamas, Polysomnography and Professional Athletes: The Role of Sleep Tracking Technology in Sport.

Technological advances in sleep monitoring have seen an explosion of devices used to gather important sleep metrics. These devices range from instrumented 'smart pyjamas' through to at-home polysomnography devices. Alongside these developments in sleep technologies, there have been concomitant increases in sleep monitoring in athletic populations, both in the research and in practical settings.

Neurotransmitters of sleep and wakefulness in flatworms.

Study Objectives: Sleep is a prominent behavioral and biochemical state observed in all animals studied, including platyhelminth flatworms. Investigations into the biochemical mechanisms associated with sleep-and wakefulness-are important for understanding how these states are regulated and how that regulation changed with the evolution of new types of animals. Unfortunately, beyond a handful of vertebrates, such studies on invertebrates are rare.

Inactivity Is Nycthemeral, Endogenously Generated, Homeostatically Regulated, and Melatonin Modulated in a Free-Living Platyhelminth Flatworm.

Introduction: Sleep either appeared once early in the evolution of animals, or at multiple instances over evolutionary time. Understanding whether sleep is a diagnostic trait for members of the kingdom Animalia has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of sleep and sleep functions. Unfortunately, knowledge on the phylogenetic breadth of sleep is restricted to vertebrates, a few arthropods and molluscs, and one species of nematode.