A highly-tunable dopaminergic oscillator generates ultradian rhythms of behavioral arousal
- McGill University, Canada
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Canada
Abstract
Ultradian (~4 h) rhythms in locomotor activity that do not depend on the master circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus have been observed across mammalian species, however, the underlying mechanisms driving these rhythms are unknown. We show that disruption of the dopamine transporter gene lengthens the period of ultradian locomotor rhythms in mice. Period lengthening also results from chemogenetic activation of midbrain dopamine neurons and psychostimulant treatment, while the antipsychotic haloperidol has the opposite effect. We further reveal that striatal dopamine levels fluctuate in synchrony with ultradian activity cycles and that dopaminergic tone strongly predicts ultradian period. Our data indicate that an arousal regulating, dopaminergic ultradian oscillator (DUO) operates in the mammalian brain, which normally cycles in harmony with the circadian clock, but can desynchronize when dopamine tone is elevated, thereby producing aberrant patterns of arousal which are strikingly similar to perturbed sleep-wake cycles comorbid with psychopathology.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Richard D Palmiter, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the Canadian Council on Animal Care guidelines and approved by the McGill University Animal Care Committee (animal use protocol #2010-5945).
Version history
- Received: October 10, 2014
- Accepted: December 28, 2014
- Accepted Manuscript published: December 29, 2014 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: February 12, 2015 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2014, Blum et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A highly-tunable dopaminergic oscillator generates ultradian rhythms of behavioral arousal
eLife 3:e05105.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05105
Further reading
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Dopamine drives an "ultradian" clock with a period of around four hours in mice.
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