AI Summary
This article discusses the emerging functions of neuromodulation during sleep, focusing on the roles of norepinephrine, dopamine, and acetylcholine in orchestrating brain activity, regulating sleep architecture, responsiveness to stimuli, and memory consolidation. The review highlights the impact of neuromodulators on neuronal activity in different sleep substates and emphasizes the importance of understanding these processes for treating neuropsychiatric disorders. Investigating neuromodulatory signaling during sleep presents unique opportunities to deepen our understanding of brain function during rest.
Neuromodulators act on multiple timescales to affect neuronal activity and behavior. They function as synaptic fine-tuners and master coordinators of neuronal activity across distant brain regions and body organs. While much research on neuromodulation has focused on roles in promoting features of wakefulness and transitions between sleep and wake states, the precise dynamics and functions of neuromodulatory signaling during sleep have received less attention. This review discusses research presented at our minisymposium at the 2024 Society for Neuroscience meeting, highlighting how norepinephrine, dopamine, and acetylcholine orchestrate brain oscillatory activity, control sleep architecture and microarchitecture, regulate responsiveness to sensory stimuli, and facilitate memory consolidation. The potential of each neuromodulator to influence neuronal activity is shaped by the state of the synaptic milieu, which in turn is influenced by the organismal or systemic state. Investigating the effects of neuromodulator release across different sleep substates and synaptic environments offers unique opportunities to deepen our understanding of neuromodulation and explore the distinct computational opportunities that arise during sleep. Moreover, since alterations in neuromodulatory signaling and sleep are implicated in various neuropsychiatric disorders and because existing pharmacological treatments affect neuromodulatory signaling, gaining a deeper understanding of the less-studied aspects of neuromodulators during sleep is of high importance.