A comparative study of sleep and diurnal patterns in house mouse (Mus musculus) and Spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus)

Chanung Wang, Lauren E. Guerriero, Dillon M. Huffman, Asmaa A. Ajwad, Trae C. Brooks, Sridhar Sunderam, Ashley W. Seifert, Bruce F. O’Hara

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Most published sleep studies use three species: human, house mouse, or Norway rat. The degree to which data from these species captures variability in mammalian sleep remains unclear. To gain insight into mammalian sleep diversity, we examined sleep architecture in the spiny basal murid rodent Acomys cahirinus. First, we used a piezoelectric system validated for Mus musculus to monitor sleep in both species. We also included wild M. musculus to control for alterations generated by laboratory-reared conditions for M. musculus. Using this comparative framework, we found that A. cahirinus, lab M. musculus, and wild M. musculus were primarily nocturnal, but exhibited distinct behavioral patterns. Although the activity of A. cahirinus increased sharply at dark onset, it decreased sharply just two hours later under group and individual housing conditions. To further characterize sleep patterns and sleep-related variables, we set up EEG/EMG and video recordings and found that A. cahirinus sleep significantly more than M. musculus, exhibit nearly three times more REM, and sleep almost exclusively with their eyes open. The observed differences in A. cahirinus sleep architecture raise questions about the evolutionary drivers of sleep behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10944
JournalScientific Reports
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We acknowledge Dr. Thomas Gawriluk, Jim Monegue, and David Higginbotham and the rest of the swine unit for their help and enthusiasm for trapping the wild mice. Funding was provided by NSF | NSF Office of the Director | Office of International Science and Engineering (Office of International Science & Engineering), Grant No. IOS -1353713, United States Department of Defense | NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Grant No. R43NS083218.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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