Experimental and computational analysis of REM sleep distributed cortical activity in mice

Although classically Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) sleep is thought to generate desynchronized activity similar to wakefulness, it was found that some brain regions can express Slow Wave activity (SWA), a pattern which is normally typical of slow-wave sleep. To investigate possible underlying mechanisms, we analyze experimental recordings and introduce a computational model of mice cerebral cortex in REM sleep. We characterized the patterns of slow-wave activity across somatosensory and motor areas, and find that the most prominent REM-related SWA is present in the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory areas, more rarely seen in motor cortex, and absent from prefrontal cortex or hippocampus. The SWA also tends to be synchronized in S1 and S2. We next investigated possible mechanisms by using a computational model of the mouse brain consisting of adaptive Exponential (AdEx) mean-fields connected together according to the mouse connectome. To compare with experimental data, the local field potential is calculated in each mouse brain region. To reproduce the experiments, we had to assume a heterogeneous level of adaptation in different cortical regions during REM sleep. In these conditions, the model reproduces some of the experimental observations in the somato-motor areas and the other cortical areas. We then used the model to test how the presence of SWA affects cortical responsiveness. Indeed, we find that the areas expressing SWA have diminished evoked responses, which may participate to a diminished responsiveness during REM sleep.