REM sleep-suppressing effects of atropine in cats vary with environmental temperature

Szymusiak, Ronald; Danowski, Janice; McGinty, Dennis

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(94)90184-8

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…In these cases, during periods of sleep the forebrain generates a sleep-like state characterized by periods of high voltage EEG, independent of the brainstem, that shows periods of phasic activity similar to that seen in REM sleep [Jouvet, 1962;Siegel, 2000]. Moreover, lesions of the rostral brainstem cholinergic cell groups in adult mammals [McGinty, 1969], or blockade of all cholinergic cell groups by atropine administration [Szymusiak et al, 1994], produces periods of REM sleep with high voltage EEG [Shoham and Teitelbaum, 1982]. Secondly, juvenile mammals show a similar pattern of brain activity during sleep, i.e., high voltage EEG and phasic brainstem activity [McGinty et al, 1977;Frank and Heller, 1997;Siegel, 1999].…”

Section: The Cholinergic System and Sleep In The Monotremesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Distribution and Morphological Characteristics of Cholinergic Cells in the Brain of Monotremes as Revealed by ChAT Immunohistochemistry

et al. 2002

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The present study employs choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunohistochemistry to identify the cholinergic neuronal population in the central nervous system of the monotremes. Two of the three extant species of monotreme were studied: the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). The distribution of cholinergic cells in the brain of these two species was virtually identical. Distinct groups of cholinergic cells were observed in the striatum, basal forebrain, habenula, pontomesencephalon, cranial nerve motor nuclei, and spinal cord. In contrast to other tetrapods studied with this technique, we failed to find evidence for cholinergic cells in the hypothalamus, the parabigeminal nucleus (or nucleus isthmus), or the cerebral cortex. The lack of hypothalamic cholinergic neurons creates a hiatus in the continuous antero-posterior aggregation of cholinergic neurons seen in other tetrapods. This hiatus might be functionally related to the phenomenology of monotreme sleep and to the ontogeny of sleep in mammals, as juvenile placental mammals exhibit a similar combination of sleep elements to that found in adult monotremes.

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