"New circuit-based targets for sleep and attentional disorders"
Year: 2015
Institution: New York University School of Medicine
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Halassa
Research Category: Translational
Sleep problems are some of the most widely encountered complaints in clinical practice, and are associated with poor mental functioning. While poor sleep as a result of back pain can be effectively treated with sleeping pills, poor sleep because of brain circuit problems are more difficult to treat that way. In diseases such as schizophrenia, autism and ADHD there is evidence that the brain does not effectively filter sensory inputs. This happens while individuals are awake, causing them to be distractible and when they are asleep, causing them to be highly arousable. By studying the fundamental mechanisms by which the brain filters sensory inputs, my lab aims to understand this process in hopes of treating neurodevelopmental diseases.
The above project description has been supplied by the Principal Investigator