Psychology Wiki

Peribrachial area

34,130pages on
this wiki
Revision as of 14:32, October 27, 2013 by Dr Joe Kiff (Talk | contribs)




Peribrachial area is the region around the brachium conjunctivum, located in the dorsolateral pons; contains acetylcholinergic neurons involved in the initiation of REM sleep.

Mechanism for PGO wave generation and propagationEdit

The neurophysiological studies on PGO waves conclude that the generation of these waves reside in a collection of neurons located in the pons, regardless of species research is done on.[1] From this point, the neurons branch out in a network that leads the phasic electrical signal toward the lateral geniculate nucleus and the occipital lobe.

Within this network, there are two types of neuronal groups: executive neurons and modulatory neurons.

Executive neuronsEdit

Executive neurons are the ones that help to generate and propagate the PGO waves throughout the brain. One research paper further breaks down this "class" of neurons into two subsets: triggering neurons and transfer neurons.[2] All of these neurons are located in the peribrachial area, which is a group of neurons surrounding the superior cerebellar penduncle.

Triggering neuronsEdit

Triggering neurons are located in the caudolateral region of the peribrachial area. These neurons actively fire during non-REM (NREM) sleep. The most recorded activity of the neurons is during the N3 stage of NREM, also known as the slow-wave sleep cycle. These same neurons are also active during REM sleep, but at a greatly reduced amplitude than NREM sleep.[1]

Transfer neuronsEdit

Transfer neurons are the neuronal cells that allow for the transfer of PGO waves from the pons to the other parts of the brain reside on the rostral portion of the peribrachial area. This grouping of cells fire in precisely two modes. The first mode is burst firing through low-threshold Calcium (Ca2+) ion channels. The other mode is a repetitive tonic firing through Sodium (Na+) dependent ion channels.[3]

See alsoEdit


  1. 1.0 1.1 Datta, S., and Hobson, J.A. 1994. Neuronal activity in the caudo-lateral peribrachial pons:Relationship to PGO waves and rapid eye movements. J. Neurophysiol. 71:95–109.
  3. Williams, J.A., and Reiner, P.B. 1993. Noradrenaline hyperpolarizes identified rat mesopontine cholinergic neurons in vitro. J. Neurosci. 13:3878–3883.

External linksEdit


Around Wikia's network

Random Wiki