Flies that cannot fly in the air respond by sleeping more as they learn to adapt to their no-fly rule. This is the result of a study by the...
Flies that cannot fly in the air respond by sleeping more as they learn to adapt to their no-fly rule. This is the result of a study by the medical school at the University of Washington in St. Louis. The results, published in Science Advances on May 8, suggest that sleep can be an evolutionary tool that helps animals adapt to new difficult situations.
"We know that sleep is involved in creativity and knowledge," said lead author Paul Shaw, PhD, professor of neuroscience. "Have you ever slept in a problem and when you woke up did you find the answer? Anxiety keeps people awake at night, but when you are in a dangerous environment or situation you don't know how sleep management can be, what you need to respond effectively. "
The dream of fruit flies is very similar to that of humans. Baby flies need a lot of sleep, but as they get older their sleep needs decrease. Flies become more alert with caffeine and sleepy with antihistamines. And if you keep a fly awake one day, it will sleep more the next day.
These similarities suggest that the sleep patterns of flies can affect human sleep patterns. To investigate the relationship between difficult circumstances and sleep, Shaw and the scientist and lead author Krishna Melnattur, PhD, suppressed the ability of flies to fly.
Baby flies should spread their wings within the first half hour after hatching, otherwise their wings will not develop properly. The researchers placed newly created flies in small containers so that they could not spread their wings, and genetically modified other flies so that the wings of the insects did not spread. Both scenarios left young flies without a permanent flight. The researchers also caught older flies by deactivating their wings. In all cases, the animals slept more than usual due to the impossibility of flying.
In later experiments, the researchers followed neuronal circuits that tell the brain that the wings are not working and trigger the urge to sleep more.
"When we identified the neurons that were activated when we cut or glued the wings of adult flies, it turned out to be the same neurons that were involved in the normal process of wing expansion after emergence," said Melnattur.
The fact that wing injuries and normal wing development are linked to sleep through the same neurological cycle has an evolutionary meaning, the researchers said. The circulatory system is active in young flies because their developing brains need sleep as animals spread their wings, learn to fly and begin to navigate the world around them.
"And then the whole circuit can be reactivated later in life if something happens that forces a fly to adapt to a new normal," said Shaw. "Suddenly his brain has to be as flexible as when he was young. He can no longer fly, but he still needs food, he has to compete for his companions, he has to avoid dying. We think that sleep increases brain plasticity, which the fly needs to survive. "
Shaw and Melnattur are planning experiments to determine whether increased sleep helps flightless flies to survive. Your results can also provide clues as to why some people sleep more than others and why certain sleep disorders occur.
"There are big differences in sleep time between people," Shaw said. "Some people need five hours a night, others nine. Sleep is an old process, and we have developed mechanisms to change our sleep-wake balance and meet our needs. If these mechanisms are activated inappropriately, e.g. for a traumatic event that triggers PTSD, a situation in which you sleep too much or too little and no longer meet your needs, there is a sleep disorder. "
Source of the story:
Materials provided by the University of Washington medical school . Originally written by Tamara Bhandari. Note: The content can be changed in terms of style and length.
