ELECTRICAL AND CHEMICAL MANIPULATION OF CORTICAL NETWORK STATES IN VITRO

Abstract

Despite its profound impact on humanity, very little is known about the cellular and biochemical regulation sleep. A local use-dependent theory of sleep posits that sleep-wake cycling emerges through the consolidation and synchronization of local network state changes that are mechanistically driven by neuronal and glial activity-induced genes. The brain tracks previous cellular activity through extracellular adenosine tri-phosphate and the release of sleep regulatory substances such as the cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF). The basis of local sleep, network state changes, can be studied in cortical cultures