Wakefulness-promoting systems: progress and thinking

Abstract

Wakefulness is the real presentation of life. All the time, the neural mechanism of wakefulness has been the focus of its researches. With the development of single cell labeling and detection technologies and their wide application in the field of neurosciences, the mechanism of neural circuit for wakefulness has been continuously updated and improved. In recent years, more evidence demonstrates that except the classical cholinergic and monoamine neurotransmitter systems, other neurotransmitters are also the important components involved in the regulation of wakefulness, such as neuropeptides, glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid. There is a new idea that wakefulness involves not only the wakefulness-promoting systems, but also the brain function network innervated by the systems. Only if the damage to the wakefulness-promoting system or to the core functional brain network itself, would not wakefulness occur. Therefore, from the perspective of the functional needs of the brain, we will better understand the nature of wakefulness.

Keywords

• wakefulness
• neural circuit
• thought
• consciousness
• value judgment
• memory