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Authors & Affiliations
Staf Bauer, Chris De Zeeuw, Cathrin Canto
Abstract
Perception and action in humans and rodents require a well-functioning embodied self. To sustain embodiment, the brain must continuously adapt to the dynamic changes of the animal’s body. Research over the past decades has suggested that embodiment may occur during active or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Brief jerky movements or (myoclonic) twitches, mainly described to occur during REM sleep have been proposed as a mechanism through which the brain maps motor output with sensory input, establishing a vital sensorimotor loop essential for embodiment during early development. However, while these mechanisms have been studied during rodent development, we aim to investigate twitching behaviour in adult mice during both REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep, by simultaneously recording activity in the neck muscle, hippocampus, primary motor cortex, and cerebellum. Our results show that twitching occurs during both REM and NREM sleep in adult mice. Furthermore, these twitches are associated with spindles and ripples in both the primary motor cortex and the cerebellum. During these spindles, there is an increased coherence with a directionality from the cerebellum to the motor cortex within the spindle frequency range. These observations highlight the potential involvement of the cerebellum in sleep-related twitching behaviour and the cerebellar contribution to maintaining the sensorimotor loop essential for embodiment in adult mice during sleep.