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The Role of REM Sleep in the Development of PTSD Using a Rodent Model
Author(s) -
Arias Yvette,
Delorme James,
Poe Gina
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.1284.12
Subject(s) - sleep deprivation , sleep (system call) , psychology , non rapid eye movement sleep , stressor , extinction (optical mineralogy) , memory consolidation , medicine , psychiatry , clinical psychology , neuroscience , circadian rhythm , electroencephalography , hippocampus , paleontology , biology , operating system , computer science
Sleep disturbances resulting from an acute trauma predict the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Sleep abnormalities can aggravate PTSD and may result in failure of extinction memory, allowing fear to persist. Currently, the electrophysiological properties of sleep that are associated with trauma are not well understood. Rapid eye moment (REM) sleep plays a critical role in memory consolidation and emotional regulation but it may be maladaptive in those experiencing PTSD. We hypothesize that normal, adaptive REM sleep following a traumatic event will lessen the severity of a PTSD‐like phenotype. Male Sprague Dawley rats were REM sleep deprived prior to (n=6) or after (n=6) a single prolonged stress (SPS) protocol (three acute stressors followed by a 7‐day isolation period) to develop a PTSD‐like phenotype, and to assess the contribution of sleep disruption to phenotype development. We evaluated freezing levels on a fear‐associated memory test to assess the severity of the PTSD‐like phenotype in the two sleep deprivation groups compared with controls who never experienced the trauma (n=6) and traumatized rats who were never sleep deprived (n=6). Interestingly, sleep deprivation after the acute phase of SPS and prior to the 7 day isolation period ameliorated the PTSD like symptom of impaired extinction recall a week later. The data suggests that REM sleep deprivation after a traumatic event reduces PTSD‐like phenotype, and that sleep disruption before the trauma exposure did not have a similar effect in rescuing the animals from the posttraumatic disorder symptoms. Our findings, preventing possibly maladaptive sleep following trauma, and timing sleep to adaptive windows normalize later fear extinction abilities. This may be beneficial as part of a treatment for PTSD and other stress associated disorders. Support or Funding Information UPR‐PRISE NIH#R25GM096955 University of Michigan SURP 2015