Findings from Mass General Brigham investigators highlight the intricate interplay of diverse physiological processes as the brain shifts from wakefulness to sleep.
A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham used next-generation imaging technology to discover that when the brain is falling asleep, it shows a coordinated shift in activity. They found that during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, parts of the brain that handle movement and sensory input stay active and keep using energy, while areas involved in thinking, memory and daydreaming quiet down and use less energy. Their results are published in Nature Communications.
“This research helps explain how the brain stays responsive to the outside world even as awareness fades during sleep,” said corresponding author Jingyuan Chen, PhD, an assistant investigator at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. “By revealing how brain activity, energy use, and blood flow interact during sleep, these findings, and the imaging tools we used to uncover them, offer new insights into the mechanisms of neurological and sleep-related diseases.”