Role for T-type $Ca 2+$ channels in sleep waves

Vincenzo Crunelli (1, 2) , Francois David (1) , Nathalie Leresche (3) , Régis C Lambert (3)

1 Cardiff University
2 University of Malta [Malta]
3 NPS - Neuroscience Paris Seine

Since their discovery more than 30 years ago, low-threshold T-type $Ca 2+$ channels (T channels) have been suggested to play a key role in many EEG waves of non-REM sleep, which has remained exclusively linked to the ability of these channels to generate low-threshold $Ca 2+$ potentials and associated high-frequency bursts of action potentials. Our present understanding of the biophysics and physiology of T channels, however, highlights a much more diverse and complex picture of the pivotal contributions that they make to different sleep rhythms. In particular, recent experimental evidence has conclusively demonstrated the essential contribution of thalamic T channels to the expression of slow waves of natural sleep and the key role played by $Ca 2+$ entry through these channels in the activation or modulation of other voltage-dependent channels that are important for the generation of both slow waves and sleep spindles. However, the precise contribution to sleep rhythms of T channels in cortical neurons and other sleep-controlling neuronal networks remains unknown, and a full understanding of the cellular and network mechanisms of sleep delta waves is still lacking.

Mots clés: Ca2+ channels; Sleep waves; Sleep slow oscillation; Thalamus; Cortex; Sleep spindles; Delta waves; Slow waves; Theta waves; Neural networks

Domaines: Neurobiologie

Vincenzo Crunelli, Francois David, Nathalie Leresche, Régis C Lambert. Role for T-type $Ca 2+$ channels in sleep waves. Pflügers Archiv European Journal of Physiology, 2014, 466 (4), pp.735-745. ⟨10.1007/s00424-014-1477-3⟩. ⟨hal-01348934⟩