Activation of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons produces wakefulness through dopamine D-like receptors in mice.

A growing body of evidence suggests that dopamine plays a role in sleep-wake regulation, but the dopamine-producing brain areas that control sleep-wake states are unclear. In this study, we chemogenetically activated dopamine neurons in the ventral midbrain of mice to examine the role of these neurons in sleep-wake regulation. We found that activation of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), but not in the substantia nigra, strongly induced wakefulness, although both cell populations expressed the neuronal activity marker c-Fos after chemogenetic stimulation.

Forward-genetics analysis of sleep in randomly mutagenized mice.

Sleep is conserved from invertebrates to vertebrates, and is tightly regulated in a homeostatic manner. The molecular and cellular mechanisms that determine the amount of rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and non-REMS (NREMS) remain unknown. Here we identify two dominant mutations that affect sleep and wakefulness by using an electroencephalogram/electromyogram-based screen of randomly mutagenized mice.