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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Ameliorates Stress-Induced Sleep Disruption via Activating Infralimbic Cortex-Ventrolateral Preoptic Area Projections
Su, Y.-J.; Yi, P.-L.; Chang, F.-C. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Ameliorates Stress-Induced Sleep Disruption via Activating Infralimbic-Ventrolateral Preoptic Projections. Brain Sci.2024, 14, 105.
Su, Y.-J.; Yi, P.-L.; Chang, F.-C. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Ameliorates Stress-Induced Sleep Disruption via Activating Infralimbic-Ventrolateral Preoptic Projections. Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 105.
Su, Y.-J.; Yi, P.-L.; Chang, F.-C. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Ameliorates Stress-Induced Sleep Disruption via Activating Infralimbic-Ventrolateral Preoptic Projections. Brain Sci.2024, 14, 105.
Su, Y.-J.; Yi, P.-L.; Chang, F.-C. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Ameliorates Stress-Induced Sleep Disruption via Activating Infralimbic-Ventrolateral Preoptic Projections. Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 105.
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is acknowledged for its non-invasive modulation of neuronal activity in psychiatric disorders. However, its application in insomnia research yields varied outcomes depending on different tDCS types and patient conditions. Our primary objective is to elucidate its efficiency and uncover the underlying mechanisms in insomnia treatment. We hypothesized that anodal prefrontal cortex stimulation activates glutaminergic projections from the infralimbic cortex (IL) to ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO) to promote sleep. After administering 0.06 mA of electrical currents for 8 minutes, our results indicate significant non-rapid eye movement (NREM) enhancement in naïve mice within the initial 3 hours post-stimulation, persisting up to 16-24 hours. In the insomnia group, tDCS enhanced NREM sleep bout numbers during acute stress response and improved NREM and REM sleep duration in subsequent acute insomnia. Sleep quality, assessed through NREM delta powers, remains unaffected. Interference of the IL-VLPO pathway, utilizing designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) with the cre-DIO system, partially blocked tDCS's sleep improvement in stress-induced insomnia. This study elucidated that the activation of the IL-VLPO pathway mediates tDCS's effect on stress-induced insomnia. These findings support the understanding of tDCS effects on sleep disturbances, providing valuable insights for future research and clinical applications in sleep therapy.
Keywords
designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs); infralimbic cortex; sleep; stress; transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); ventrolateral preoptic area
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
