A Small Group of Inhibitory Neurons Can Send a Mouse to Sleep

Somewhere in the cortex sits a small population of cells that can put a mouse to sleep. In a recent Nature study, neuroscientist Geoffrey Terral and Renata Batista-Brito, who runs the lab, report that these cells make up only around one percent of the cortex's inhibitory neurons, and that switching them on sends the animal to sleep. The claim is about initiation, not mere response. The study's argument is that the cortex can not only register the slow rhythm of deep sleep but also start it on its own — and that this is sufficient to promote sleep.