REM sleep generation

Velazquez-Moctezuma, J., Gillin, J. C. Shiromani, P. J. (1989). Effect of specific Ml, M2 muscarinic receptor agonists on REM sleep generation. Brain Res. 503, 128-31. 

Onoe, H. Sakai, K. (1995). Kainate receptors a novel mechanism in paradoxical (REM) sleep generation. Neuroreport 6, 353-6. 

M2 subtype modulates the amount of REM sleep. If postsynaptic muscarinic receptors of the M2 subtype contribute to REM sleep generation, then pharmacological manipulation of M2-activated signal transduction cascades would be anticipated to alter REM sleep (1.2 on Fig. 5.1). 

Baghdoyan, H. A. (1997). Location and quantification of muscarinic receptor subtypes in rat pons implications for REM sleep generation. Am. J. Physiol. 273, R896-R904. 

Capece, M. L., Baghdoyan, H. A. Lydic, R. (1999). New directions for the study of cholinergic REM sleep generation Specifying presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms. In REM Sleep, ed. B. N. Mallick S. Inoue, pp. 123-41. London Narosa Press. 

Because it was known by 1960 that the pontine brain stem was crucial to REM sleep generation, it was natural to assume that the newly discovered modulatory elements played an important role in its generation. It was even reasonable, on an a priori basis, that each of the elements had responsibility for one state, viz, dopamine controls waking, serotonin controls slow wave sleep, and norepinephrine controls REM. Early lesion and parenteral pharmacological studies—some even armed with measures of amine concentrations in the brain—gave initial support to this concept. For example, Michel Jouvet produced insomnia in cats by blocking the enzyme that is essential to convert tryptophane into serotonin. He interpreted this result to mean that serotonin was a sleep mediator. 

Capece ML, Baghdoyan HA, Lydic R. New direction for the study of cholinergic REM sleep generation specifying pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms. In Mallick BN, Inoue S, eds. Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. London Narasa Publishing House, 1999 123-141. 

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