Effects of Environmental Temperature on Sleep and Waking in Normal Rats and Rats With Basal Forebrain Damage

Damage to the basal forebrain (preoptic area and surrounding structures) causes hyposomnia and impairs body temperature regulation. Normal sleep is sensitive to thermal stress--animals spend the most time asleep at thermoneutral temperatures, and amounts of sleep decline in the heat and in the cold. Amounts of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep in normal rats vary within the thermoneutral zone defined by minimal metabolic rate--25 to 31(DEGREES)C--peaking toward the upper end of this zone (Szymusiak and Satinoff, Physiol. Behav. 26:687, 1981). Given the sensitivity of normal sleep to small changes in thermal stress, sleep disturbances produced by basal forebrain damage may, in part, be secondary to impaired thermoregulation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Szymusiak, Ronald S.

• Psychology, Physiological

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8303002

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69619