Suppression of ponto-geniculo-occipital waves by neurotoxic lesions of pontine caudo-lateral peribrachial cells.

Ponto-geniculo-occipital waves precede rapid eye movement sleep and play an important role in triggering and maintaining rapid eye movement sleep. Ponto-geniculo-occipital waves have been implicated in several important functions such as sensorimotor integration, learning, cognition, development of the visual system, visual hallucination, and startle response. Peribrachial area neurons have long been thought to play a key role in the triggering of ponto-geniculo-occipital wave. However, the exact location within the peribrachial area for triggering pontine ponto-geniculo-occipital wave has not been unequivocally demonstrated. In an attempt to address this issue, kainic acid was microinjected (1.0 micrograms) unilaterally into the caudo-lateral peribrachial area of four cats in order to destroy the cell bodies located in that region and thus to study the effects of their destruction upon waking-sleep states and ponto-geniculo-occipital waves. The kainic acid produced a small spherical area of nerve cell loss and/or gliosis centered on the stereotaxic coordinates of P: 4.0, L: 4.5, and H: -2.5. The maximum diameter of that spherical area of cell loss was 0.9 mm. Unilateral lesioning of the caudo-lateral peribrachial area decreased ponto-geniculo-occipital waves during rapid eye movement sleep by 85% ipsi-laterally and 15% contralaterally in the lateral geniculate body without significantly changing the amounts of time spent in wake, slow-wave sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep. These results suggest that the caudo-lateral peribrachial area cells are critical to the genesis of ponto-geniculo-occipital waves, and provide compelling evidence that the different parts of the peribrachial area have quite different roles in the generation of discrete rapid eye movement sleep signs. We propose that caudo-lateral peribrachial cells exert an excitatory influence on rostral peribrachial cells, which then directly activate the ponto-geniculo-occipital waves that are recorded in the lateral geniculate body. Results of this study are not only important to understand the mechanisms generating ponto-geniculo-occipital waves but also could be used as an experimental tool to study the functions of this wave.