Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a neurological condition characterized by lack of motor suprression during REM sleep, which subseqeuently results in dream enactment behaviors. Although the exact cause of RBD remains unclear, previous basic science studies suggest that brainstem contains neuronal populations that are involved in REM sleep motor suppression, and conversely that their dysfunction could be involved in RBD. Despite much clinical evidence supporting a close link between REM sleep behavior disorder and synucleopathies such as Parkinson's disease, there is no direct experimental evidence that shows that they are caused by the same neurodegenerative disease mechanism. In this study, we use disease-causing vectors to induce Parkinson's disease-like pathology in brainstem REM sleep circuits. If neurodegenerative processes are involved in the pathogenesis of RBD, we hypothesize that targeted degeneration of brainstem structures will induce RBD symptoms in mice. Our preliminary results shows that Parkinson's disease-like pathology in the mouse brainstem results in abnormal muscle activity during REM sleep, which is observed in RBD patients. Next, we will investigate whether neurodegnerative processes can spread from the spinal cord to REM sleep circuits to cause RBD-like symptoms. Altogether, the these experiments aim to address the association between RBD and the synucleopathies and represent the most comprehensive dissection of RBD mechanisms to date.