Research Interest
Short term: As for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, two muscarinic Acetylcholine receptors are reported to be crucial, however, as for non-REM (NREM) sleep, mouse model which completely lacks this sleeping period is not found. This indicates that (i) the “core” brain region of NREM sleep is spread out through the brain, which makes it hard to completely abate NREM sleep through partial resection of brain, or (ii) there are several molecular pathways which support NREM sleep. I think both scenarios are likely because the finding of “local sleep” supports (i), and the presence of several activity-dependent hyperpolarization pathways which may support cortical up-down oscillation, which is central to slow-wave sleep. I investigate molecular pathways which support cortical up-down oscillation by combing mathematical modeling, in vitro electrophysiological recording as well as in vivo sleep phenotype analysis to understand the complex modulation of NREM sleep.
Lond term: To define the state of several mental illness through mathematical modeling focusing on electrophysiology. (To be continued)