The mysteries of sleep and waking unveiled by Michel Jouvet.
Sleep Medicine September 1, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.030 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMichel Jouvet pioneered sleep research by discovering a third sleep-wake state, paradoxical sleep (PS), characterized by waking-like cortical activity alongside sleep-like behavior and muscle atonia. Over 50 years, he used lesion and pharmacological techniques to identify neuromodulatory systems necessary for sleep-wake states. Later, more selective methods revealed that monoamines, acetylcholine, and peptidergic systems play modulatory but non-essential roles, while glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons act as the primary effectors of these states and their correlates.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Gamma Paradoxical sleep Rem sleep Slow wave sleep |
| Key finding | Describes Jouvet's discovery of paradoxical sleep and his finding that neuromodulatory systems are modulatory but not essential, while glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons are the effectors of sleep-wake states. |
Abstract
A great pioneer in sleep research, Michel Jouvet applied rigorous scientific methods to the study of sleep-wake states and associated changes in consciousness which, with his vivid imagination and creative mind, he unveiled as the mysteries of sleep and waking such as to inspire a generation of researchers in the field. His initial discovery of a third state distinguished from waking (W) and slow wave sleep (SWS) by the paradoxical association of W-like cortical activity with sleep-like behavior and muscle atonia that he accordingly called "paradoxical sleep" (PS) began his investigation over some 50 years of the mechanisms of these three sleep-wake states. Using primarily lesion and pharmacological manipulations, he sought the systems which are necessary and sufficient, and he thereby provided an early blueprint of how the neuromodulatory systems could determine the sleep-wake states. With the application of increasingly more selective lesion and other advanced techniques including, notably, single unit recording combined with histochemical identification of recorded units, the monoamines and acetylcholine, together with peptidergic systems have been revealed to play modulatory, yet not essential, roles acting upon other intermingled glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons that are the effector neurons of the sleep-wake states and their cortical and behavioral correlates.