Sleep is one of the few major whole-organ phenomena for which no function and no
underlying mechanism have been conclusively demonstrated. Sleep could result from global …

Emotions, stress, hunger, and circadian rhythms all promote wakefulness and behavioral
arousal. Little is known about the pathways mediating these influences, but the orexin-…

Narcolepsy is caused by a lack of orexin (hypocretin), but the physiologic process that underlies
the sleepiness of narcolepsy is unknown. Using orexin knock-out (KO) mice as a model …

Background: Narcolepsy with cataplexy is associated with a loss of orexin/hypocretin. It is
speculated that an autoimmune process kills the orexin-producing neurons, but these cells …

An understanding of sleep requires the identification of distinct cellular circuits that mediate
the action of specific sleep:wake-regulating molecules, but such analysis has been very …

Sleep is a fundamental process, but its regulation and function are still not well understood.
The Drosophila model for sleep provides a powerful system to address the genetic and …

Almost 20 years ago, the gene underlying fatal familial insomnia was discovered, and first
suggested the concept that a single gene can regulate sleep. In the two decades since, there …

Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed stimulants in the world and has been proposed
to promote wakefulness by antagonizing function of the adenosine A 2A receptor. Here, we …

The death of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is thought to result from the
interaction of a variety of factors including excitotoxicity, accumulation of toxic proteins, and …

Learning and memory formation in Drosophila rely on a network of neurons in the mushroom
bodies (MBs). Whereas numerous studies have delineated roles for individual cell types …