In mammals, the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) modulates a variety of behaviours, although
DA function is mostly associated with motor control and reward. In insects such as the …

Background: Arousal levels in the brain set thresholds for behavior, from simple to complex.
The mechanistic underpinnings of the various phenomena comprising arousal, however, are …

How might one determine whether simple animals such as flies sleep in stages? Sleep in
mammals is a dynamic process involving different stages of sleep intensity, and these are …

Body size is an archetypal quantitative trait with variation due to the segregation of many
gene loci, each of relatively minor effect, and the environment. We examine the effects of …

Sleep is a highly conserved state, suggesting that sleep’s benefits outweigh the increased
vulnerability it brings. Yet, little is known about how sleep fulfills its functions. Here, we used …

Sleep is not a single state, but a complex set of brain processes that supports several
physiological needs. Sleep deprivation is known to affect attention in many animals, suggesting …

For decades, Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model organism to study human
diseases, ranging from heart disease to cancer to neurological disorders [9]. For studying …

Extended periods of rest in Drosophila melanogaster resemble mammalian sleep states in
that they are characterized by heightened arousal thresholds and specific alterations in gene …

Fruit flies selectively orient toward the visual stimuli that are most salient in their environment.
We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from the brains of Drosophila melanogaster as …

Given the role that sleep plays in modulating plasticity, we hypothesized that increasing
sleep would restore memory to canonical memory mutants without specifically rescuing the …