NEURAL SUBSTRATES OF INFANT SLEEP
Sleep in infants is traditionally considered more primitive than adult sleep, without changes in electroencephalographic activity depending on cortical cyclic functioning.
Karlsson and his colleagues have now demonstrated that infant rat’s sleep is characterized by periods of muscle atonia and myoclonic twitching largely similar to those observed in adult specimens (The neural substrates of infant sleep in rats. PloS Biol. 3, 891-901, 2005).
Karlsson team have shown that medullary inhibitory area, the so-called subcoeruleus, pontis oralis and dorsolateral pontine tegmentum, constitute a circuit with state dependent activity.