Low-dimensional population dynamics in the brainstem gate REM sleep
- 1Department of Neuroscience, Chronobiology and Sleep Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- 2Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
- 3Department of Neuroscience, Chronobiology and Sleep Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. [email protected]
Abstract
Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is generated in the brainstem, but the brainstem population dynamics that drive transitions to REM sleep remain largely unknown. Here, combining mouse Neuropixels recordings and dimensionality reduction, we found that population activity in the midbrain and pons is dominated by two components, one of which captures strong infraslow fluctuations in neural activity. During transitions from non-REM (NREM) to REM sleep, the population activity followed a stereotypic trajectory that was preceded by an increase in the infraslow component. Our analysis revealed-across all brainstem areas-subpopulations of REM sleep-activated and REM sleep-inhibited neurons with opposing infraslow dynamics and diverging ramping activity between REM sleep episodes, reinforced through antagonistic functional connections. Activation of REM sleep-promoting medullary neurons rapidly enhanced the infraslow component, whose strength gated the ability of upstream circuits to induce REM sleep. Collectively, our results identify a population-level mechanism for gating REM sleep, suggesting that NREM-to-REM sleep transitions are coordinated by low-dimensional, antagonistic brainstem dynamics.
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BibTeX
@article{lozano2026lowdimensional,
title = {{Low-dimensional population dynamics in the brainstem gate REM sleep}},
author = {David Lozano and Jiso Hong and Xi Jin and Joseph A. Stucynski and Christian K. Machens and Shinjae Chung and Franz Weber},
journal = {Nature Neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1038/s41593-026-02314-z},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02314-z},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Low-dimensional population dynamics in the brainstem gate REM sleep
AU - David Lozano
AU - Jiso Hong
AU - Xi Jin
AU - Joseph A. Stucynski
AU - Christian K. Machens
AU - Shinjae Chung
AU - Franz Weber
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/25
JO - Nature Neuroscience
DO - 10.1038/s41593-026-02314-z
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02314-z
AB - Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is generated in the brainstem, but the brainstem population dynamics that drive transitions to REM sleep remain largely unknown. Here, combining mouse Neuropixels recordings and dimensionality reduction, we found that population activity in the midbrain and pons is dominated by two components, one of which captures strong infraslow fluctuations in neural activity. During transitions from non-REM (NREM) to REM sleep, the population activity followed a stereotypic trajectory that was preceded by an increase in the infraslow component. Our analysis revealed-across all brainstem areas-subpopulations of REM sleep-activated and REM sleep-inhibited neurons with opposing infraslow dynamics and diverging ramping activity between REM sleep episodes, reinforced through antagonistic functional connections. Activation of REM sleep-promoting medullary neurons rapidly enhanced the infraslow component, whose strength gated the ability of upstream circuits to induce REM sleep. Collectively, our results identify a population-level mechanism for gating REM sleep, suggesting that NREM-to-REM sleep transitions are coordinated by low-dimensional, antagonistic brainstem dynamics.
SN - 1097-6256
SN - 1546-1726
ER -