Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.
By recording brain activity in seven lizard species, humans, rats and pigeons, we demonstrate an infraslow brain rhythm during sleep in all species. This rhythm is tightly coupled with eye movements, muscle tone, heart and breathing rate in lizards, with skin brightness in chameleons and with pulsatile changes in cerebrovascular volume throughout sleep in bearded dragons and during non-rapid eye movement sleep in mice. These findings indicate that the infraslow rhythm is conserved across amniotes, questioning the evolution of sleep states.
Authors
- Baptiste Barrillot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3061-9774)
- Paul‐Antoine Libourel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6726-5829)
- Manuela Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7964-9053)
- Antoine Bergel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3011-205X)
- Bertrand Massot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8489-888X)
- Mark S. Blumberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6969-2955)
- Irina Filchenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9486-1017)
- Niels C. Rattenborg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1140-222X)
- Julien Schmidt
- Gianina Ungurean
- Chloé Froidevaux
- Camille Carachet
- Laetitia Averty
- Mickael Tanter
- Sébastien Arthaud
- Anthony Herrel
- Angeline Clair
Publication Details
- Journal
- Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
- Published
- 2026-01-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48620/93523
- Primary Topic
- Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00