Abstract
Brain activity during wakefulness is associated with high metabolic rates that are believed to support information processing and memory encoding. In spite of loss of consciousness, sleep still carries a substantial energy cost. Experimental evidence supports a cerebral metabolic shift taking place during sleep that suppresses aerobic glycolysis, a hallmark of environment-oriented waking behavior and synaptic plasticity. Recent studies reveal that glial astrocytes respond to the reduction of wake-promoting neuromodulators by regulating volume, composition and glymphatic drainage of interstitial fluid. These events are accompanied by changes in neuronal discharge patterns, astrocyte-neuron interactions, synaptic transactions and underlying metabolic features. Internally-generated neuronal activity and network homeostasis are proposed to account for the high sleep-related energy demand.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Current Opinion in Neurobiology |
| Volume | 47 |
| Pages (from-to) | 65-72 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 0959-4388 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2017 |
Keywords
- Journal Article
- Review