Calcium Channel Cav3.1 Essential For Deep Sleep

Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 14:30 in Biology & Nature

Sleep seems simple enough to define, it is a state of rest and restoration that almost every vertebrate creature must enter regularly in order to survive. Yet the brain responds differently to stimuli when asleep than when awake, and it is not clear what brain changes happen during sleep. A key question is why - it is the same brain, same neurons and similar requirements for oxygen so what is the difference between these two states? In a recent paper, Rodolfo Llinás, a professor of neuroscience at New York University School of Medicine , and colleagues announced that a specific calcium channel plays a crucial role in healthy sleep, a key step toward understanding both normal and abnormal waking brain functions. read more

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