Research Focus: Sleep-Wake Regulation and its Connection to Emotions and Memory

The evolutionary conservation of sleep behavior suggests its importance. However, there are two key questions in the field of sleep that have not been unanimously answered: the regulatory mechanism of sleep-wake behavior and the function of sleep. Therefore, the main research directions of the laboratory are also closely related to these two issues.

Direction 1: The regulatory mechanism of sleep-wake behavior under physiological conditions. We will explore the effects of different physiological states (such as hunger, temperature, immunity, stress, etc.) on sleep-wake behavior, as well as the corresponding neural circuits and molecular mechanisms.

Direction 2: The interaction mechanism between sleep and emotion. Sleep and emotion have a close mutual influence. Good sleep helps maintain emotional stability, while emotional fluctuations can also affect sleep quality. Lack of sufficient sleep may lead to emotional instability, irritability, anxiety or depression, but the corresponding neural mechanisms are not clear. Therefore, the research group will use behavioral, electrophysiological, optogenetic, chemical genetic and other means to reveal the neural circuit mechanism of sleep for emotional regulation, and the influence mechanism of emotion on sleep quality.

Direction 3: The neural circuit mechanism of memory consolidation by sleep. Memory consolidation is one of the key functions of sleep, but its neural circuit mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the research group will combine behavioral, electrophysiological, optogenetic, chemical genetic and other means to explore the consolidation effect of sleep on different types of memory (such as spatial memory, contextual memory, emotional memory, etc.), and the corresponding neural circuits and molecular mechanisms.