This course provides the undergraduate students to gain the idea of how to start initial research in future. My laboratory mainly focuses on the sleep neuroscience research. There are three main research interests in our laboratory.
(1) Sleep & Epilepsy
Sleep disturbance in patients with epilepsy is frequently overlooked, but contribute to the decreased daytime function and the increased seizure concurrence. The relationship between sleep and epilepsy is complicated and reciprocal. An understanding of the influences on each other has important clinical implication. Sleepiness is nearly universal among certain populations with epilepsy; however, sleep disorders are grossly underdiagnosed. Evidence in animal experiments suggests that seizure may disrupt sleep structure, particularly rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. In turn, sleep, and particularly deep slow wave sleep (SWS), has direct effects on interictal epileptiform discharges and on the occurrence of certain seizures, but REM sleep seems to suppress seizures. Furthermore, certain sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, exacerbate seizures. Therefore, an understanding of these relationships is important in seizure control and in maximizing the quality of life for patients with epilepsy. However, neither the mechanisms of sleep disturbance in patients with epilepsy nor the cellular signal pathways for sleep to inference epileptic activities are fully understood. Our interest focuses on resolving questions of how the sleep architectures are altered after epilepsy, how sleep regulates seizure activity, and what the cellular mechanisms are involved.
(2) Sleep and Parkinson’s Disease (PD)
Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) clinically can experience a number of sleep disorders, including insomnia, parasomnias and daytime somnolence, especially excessive day time sleepiness and sleep attacks. The predominant lesion in Parkinsonism, observed in PD is cell degeneration and loss of pigmented neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and the resulting loss of nerve terminals accompanied by dopamine deficiency in the striatum. In addition, the central cytokines and neurotrophins play an important role in the development of PD. Both the pathology of PD and dopaminergic drugs may contribute to the much higher than expected frequency of sleep fragmentation and disrupted sleep among these patients. Although a body of clinical evidence suggests that sleep pattern may be altered in PD patients, there is a lack of basically cellular mechanism. In a parkinsonism rat model, we target the involvement of dopaminergic and GABAergic systems, cytokines and neurotrophic factors in the parkinsonism-induced sleep alteration.
(3) Acupuncture & Sleep
Electroacupuncture (EAc) is a traditional Chinese medical practice which consists of passing an electrical current through needles inserted into acupoints to obtain a variety of therapeutic effects, including alleviation of pain, reduction of inflammation and improvement of sleep disturbances. The action and mechanism underlying EAc is still controversial. The aims of our studies are to investigate the effects of EAc stimulation on sleep-wake activity and the underlying physiological mechanisms.