School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich/ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Sleep. 2022 Aug 11;45(8). doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsac114.
In this study, we (1) describe sleep behavior and architecture, and (2) explore how sleep is regulated in dusky antechinus (Antechinus swainsonii), a small insectivorous marsupial. Our aim is to provide the first investigation into sleep homeostasis in a marsupial.
Wild-caught male dusky antechinus (n = 4) were individually housed in large indoor cages under a natural photoperiod of 10.5 h light/13.5 h dark. Continuous recordings of EEG, EMG, and tri-axial accelerometry were performed under baseline conditions and following 4-h of extended wakefulness.
Antechinus engage in SWS and REM sleep. Some aspects of these states are mammal-like, including a high amount (23%) of REM sleep, but other features are reminiscent of birds, notably, hundreds of short sleep episodes (SWS mean: 34 s; REM sleep: 10 s). Antechinus are cathemeral and sleep equally during the night and day. Immediately after the sleep deprivation ended, the animals engaged in more SWS, longer SWS episodes, and greater SWS SWA. The animals did not recover lost REM sleep.
Sleep architecture in dusky antechinus was broadly similar to that observed in eutherian and marsupial mammals, but with interesting peculiarities. We also provided the first evidence of SWS homeostasis in a marsupial mammal.
在本研究中，我们（1）描述睡眠行为和结构，（2）探索暗纹袋鼩（Antechinus swainsonii）的睡眠是如何调节的，暗纹袋鼩是一种小型食虫有袋动物。我们的目的是首次研究有袋动物的睡眠内稳态。
将野生捕获的雄性暗纹袋鼩（n = 4）单独饲养在大室内笼子中，处于 10.5 小时光照/13.5 小时黑暗的自然光周期下。在基线条件下和延长清醒 4 小时后，连续记录 EEG、EMG 和三轴加速度计。
袋鼩会进行慢波睡眠（SWS）和快速眼动（REM）睡眠。这些状态的某些方面与哺乳动物相似，包括 REM 睡眠的高比例（23%），但其他特征则让人联想到鸟类，特别是大量短暂的睡眠片段（SWS 平均：34 秒；REM 睡眠：10 秒）。袋鼩是昼夜活动的，白天和晚上睡眠量相等。睡眠剥夺结束后，动物立即进入更多的 SWS、更长的 SWS 片段和更大的 SWS SWA。动物没有恢复失去的 REM 睡眠。
暗纹袋鼩的睡眠结构与真兽类和有袋类哺乳动物观察到的睡眠结构大致相似，但有一些有趣的特点。我们还首次提供了有袋类哺乳动物 SWS 内稳态的证据。
