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Dopaminergic Substrates Underlying Hypersomnia, Sleepiness, and REM Sleep Expression

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Narcolepsy

Abstract

Dopamine is the most abundant monoamine, and it modulates diverse behaviors including movement, motivation/reward, cognition, and feeding that share one notable feature in common – viz., each occurs during wake. Dopamine’s influence upon normal and pathological states of wake and sleep has only recently begun to receive widespread attention. This rebirth of interest bears directly upon the pathophysiology and treatment of impairments in arousal encountered in narcolepsy with cataplexy, narcolepsy lacking cataplexy, the primary hypersomnias, and several psychiatric and medical conditions in which narcolepsy-like phenotypes are encountered. A comprehensive accounting presented in a recent publication includes a more complete bibliography [1]. Here, we briefly summarize current knowledge of the functional anatomy of brain dopamine networks and how they modulate wake and REM-sleep.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks are extended to our close colleagues Drs. Andy Miller, Glenda Keating, Michael Decker, Gillian Hue, and Jennifer Felger who contributed much to the body of this work. Dr. Rye is supported by USPHS grant NS-055015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Program in Sleep, Emory University School of Medicine, 101 Woodruff Circle, WMRB-Suite 6000, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    David B. Rye

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  1. David B. Rye
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  2. Amanda A. H. Freeman
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Correspondence to David B. Rye .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 26, Zurich, 8091, Switzerland

    Christian R. Baumann

  2. Neurocenter EOC of Southern Switzerland, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Via Tesserete 46, Lugano, 6903, Switzerland

    Claudio L. Bassetti

  3. and Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Thomas E. Scammell

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Rye, D.B., Freeman, A.A.H. (2011). Dopaminergic Substrates Underlying Hypersomnia, Sleepiness, and REM Sleep Expression. In: Baumann, C., Bassetti, C., Scammell, T. (eds) Narcolepsy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8390-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8390-9_6

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8390-9

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