Venue: BBS
Eus van Someren
Professor
Integrative Neurophysiology and Psychiatry,
VU University and Amsterdam University Medical Center
https://nin.nl/research-groups/van-someren
Invited by Ellemarije Altena (INCIA)
Title
Finding brain mechanism that make insomnia the primary risk for mental disorders
Abstract
Abstract: Sleep is an active brain state. Reactivation and synaptic plasticity in engrams (or ‘memory traces’) of prior wake experiences during subsequent sleep supports consolidation and adaptation of skills and episodic memory. It has largely been ignored that the sleep-facilitated synaptic plasticity processes also alter limbic, autonomic and behavioral responses embedded in engrams of distressing experiences. Even less considered is that the success of these processes determines the severity of emotional distress experienced with subsequent encounters with reoccurring identical or similar stimuli and contexts. This presentation gives clues on why sleep makes distress disappear overnight in good sleepers, yet fails to do so or can even be maladaptive by worsening distress overnight in insomnia. This may be the mechanism that makes insomnia the primary risk factor for emotional disorders. New insights call for moving insomnia research beyond psychology to the level of neuronal circuit-, cellular- and synaptic adaptations in order to understand and intervene on the most prevalent and burdening mental disorders.