Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!uunet!stanford.edu!leland.Stanford.EDU!cmgm.stanford.edu!vangeldr From: vangeldr@cmgm.stanford.edu (Russ Van Gelder) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Echidnas & REM sleep Message-ID: Date: 26 Apr 91 18:33:55 GMT References: Sender: news@leland.Stanford.EDU (Mr News) Organization: AIR, Stanford University Lines: 20 A couple of functional questions about REM sleep: 1. What is the phenotype of continuous pharmacologic suppression of REM sleep, as is seen in patients on long-term antidepressants. I believe that, aside from the antidepressant effect, in humans, there is no real phenotype. 2. What is the phenotype associated with lesions of the pedunculo- pontine tegmentum? Barbara Jones has performed these lesions in cats, resulting in a complete or almost complete loss of REM sleep. The animals seem fine. One can theorize based on comparative phylogeny, but the functional experiments of knockout and overexpression (i.e. with carbachol injection into the pontine midbrain) haven't suggested any roles for REM sleep in the adult brain. Such experiments are only now being attempted in the developing brain (i.e. recent experiments by Gerry Vogel). Russ (vangeldr@cmgm.stanford.edu)