Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Approximately three million people worldwide suffer from the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Cataplexy, a defining symptom of this disorder, is characterized by involuntary and unwanted muscle paralysis during wakefulness. There is strong evidence that disruption of the dopamine system contributes to narcolepsy. We recently have identified a novel dopamine circuit that is anatomically and functionally well positioned to support muscle tone during waking. Here, we hypothesize that malfunction or breakdown of this hypothalamic dopamine circuit contributes to sleep-related motor pathologies such as those observed in narcolepsy. Using 'optogenetics', a technique that allows us to turn neurons 'on' or 'off' with light, we showed that these dopamine neurons function to couple arousal and motor behaviors, and that optical activation of this dopamine circuit rescues cataplexy in narcoleptic mice.