The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is a critical brain region that greatly influences vital neurobehavioral processes, including executive functioning and the generation of sleep rhythms. Recently, TRN dysfunction was suggested to underlie hyperactivity, attention deficits, and sleep disturbances observed across various devastating neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Notably, a highly specialized sarco- endoplasmic reticulum calcium (Ca ) ATPase 2 (SERCA2)-dependent Ca signaling network operates in the dendrites of TRN neurons to regulate their high-frequency bursting activity. Phospholamban (PLN) is a prominent regulator of the SERCA2 with an established role in maintaining Ca homeostasis in the heart; although the interaction of PLN with SERCA2 has been largely regarded as cardiac-specific, our findings challenge this view and suggest that the role of PLN extends beyond the cardiovascular system to impact brain function. Specifically, we found PLN to be expressed in the TRN neurons of the adult mouse brain and utilized global constitutive and innovative conditional genetic mouse models, in combination with 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) and electroencephalography (EEG)-based somnography to assess the role of PLN in regulating executive functioning and sleep, two complex behaviors that map onto thalamic reticular circuits. Overall, the results of the present study show that perturbed PLN function in the TRN results in aberrant thalamic reticular behavioral phenotypes in mice (i.e., hyperactivity, impulsivity and sleep deficits) and support a novel role for PLN as a critical regulator of the SERCA2 in the thalamic reticular neurocircuitry.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.22.568306 | DOI Listing |
Sleep Adv
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Study Objectives: Sleep spindles, defining electroencephalographic oscillations of nonrapid eye movement (NREM) stage 2 sleep (N2), mediate sleep-dependent memory consolidation (SDMC). Spindles are also thought to protect sleep continuity by suppressing thalamocortical sensory relay. Schizophrenia is characterized by spindle deficits and a correlated reduction of SDMC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeliyon
November 2024
Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Sleep is crucial for maintaining brain homeostasis and individuals with insufficient sleep are prone to more pronounced brain atrophy as compared to sufficiently sleeping peers. Moreover, sleep quality deteriorates with ageing and ageing is also associated with cerebral structural and functional changes, pointing to their mutual bidirectional interrelationship. This study aimed at determining whether sleep quality and age, separately, affect brain integrity and subsequently, whether sleep significantly modulates the effect of age on brain structural and functional integrity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Mol Neurosci
December 2024
Laboratory of Veterinary Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Graduate School of Infectious Diseases, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
The accumulation of a disease-specific isoform of prion protein (PrP) and histopathological lesions, such as neuronal loss, are unevenly distributed in the brains of humans and animals affected with prion diseases. This distribution varies depending on the diseases and/or the combinations of prion strain and experimental animal. The brain region-dependent distribution of PrP and neuropathological lesions suggests a neuronal cell-type-dependent prion propagation and vulnerability to prion infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Comput Neurosci
December 2024
Department of Applied Mathematics, and Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, N2L 3G1, ON, Canada.
J Neurophysiol
February 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States.
The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is a thin shell of gap junction-coupled GABAergic inhibitory neurons that regulate afferent sensory relay of the thalamus. The TRN receives dopaminergic innervation from the midbrain, and it is known to express high concentrations of D1 and D4 receptors. Although dopaminergic modulation of presynaptic inputs to TRN has been described, the direct effect of dopamine on TRN neurons and its electrical synapses is largely unknown.
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