The dreaming sleep stage: a new neurobiological model of schizophrenia?

The rapid eye movement dreaming sleep stage and schizophrenia are both characterized by common intracerebral disconnections, disturbed responsiveness and sensory deafferentation processes. Moreover, in both states, there is dorsolateral prefrontal deactivation as shown by the decrease of blood flow. Finally, identical pharmacological and neurochemical variations are observed for acetylcholine, dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin and glutamate concentrations. Consequently, rapid eye movement sleep could become a useful new neurobiological model of this mental disease since more functional than current rat models using stimulation, lesion or drugs.