2026年9月9日，美国西奈山伊坎医学院Geoffrey Terral等科学家在《自然》（Nature）发表研究，揭示了新皮层长程抑制促进皮层同步与睡眠。

睡眠和觉醒与不同的皮层节律活动模式相关。在慢波睡眠等低唤醒状态下，同步的低频节律主导着广泛皮层区域的活动。尽管抑制性神经元日益被认为是皮层状态的关键调控因子，但在体内协调局部和远处新皮层网络同步活动的环路机制仍知之甚少。在此，研究人员在小鼠中表明，共表达生长抑素（Sst）和软骨凝集素（Chodl）的细胞——它们构成一类稀疏且遗传上独特的新皮层GABA能抑制性神经元——在低唤醒状态下选择性活跃，而在高唤醒时期大多沉默。与大多数新皮层抑制性神经元不同，Sst-Chodl细胞尽管极为稀疏，却通过同时靶向多个区域的长程轴突，对整个新皮层产生广泛影响。选择性激活Sst-Chodl细胞足以促进低唤醒状态特征性的多区域皮层同步，并诱导睡眠。总之，这些发现表明，长程Sst-Chodl抑制性神经元不仅跟踪行为状态，还能主动促进同步化皮层活动和睡眠行为，凸显了皮层环路在睡眠调控中的关键作用，与已知的皮层下机制并存。

附：英文原文

Title: Neocortical long-range inhibition promotes cortical synchrony and sleep

Author: Ratliff, Jacob M., Terral, Geoffrey, Vazquez, Arenski, Lutzu, Stefano, Manning, Arena, Perez-Catalan, Nelson, Neubert da Silva, Gabriela, Kim, Soyoun, Mota, Julie, Mallory, Matt, Stith, Bianca, Ramakrishnan, Charu, Mattessich, Gianna, Fenno, Lief E., Daigle, Tanya, Stafford, David A., Zeng, Hongkui, Tasic, Bosiljka, Sorensen, Staci, Deisseroth, Karl, Ngai, John, Kilduff, Thomas S., Sjulson, Lucas, Rudolph, Stephanie, Batista-Brito, Renata

Issue&Volume: 2026-09-09

Abstract: Sleep and wakefulness are associated with distinct cortical patterns of rhythmic activity1. During low-arousal states such as slow-wave sleep, synchronous low-frequency rhythms dominate activity across widespread cortical regions. Although inhibitory neurons are increasingly recognized as key regulators of cortical state2,3,4, the circuit mechanisms that coordinate synchronized activity across local and distant neocortical networks in vivo remain poorly understood. Here we show in mice that cells co-expressing somatostatin (Sst) and chondrolectin (Chodl)—which constitute a sparse and genetically distinct class of neocortical GABAergic inhibitory neurons—are selectively active during low-arousal states and mostly silent during periods of high arousal. In contrast to most neocortical inhibitory neurons, Sst-Chodl cells, despite being extremely sparse, exert widespread influence across the neocortex, through long-range axons that target multiple regions simultaneously. Selective activation of Sst-Chodl cells is sufficient to promote the multi-region cortical synchronization that is characteristic of low-arousal states and to induce sleep. Together, these findings show that long-range Sst-Chodl inhibitory neurons not only track behavioural state, but can also actively promote synchronized cortical activity and sleep behaviour, highlighting that cortical circuits have a key role in sleep regulation, alongside established subcortical mechanisms.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10876-y

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10876-y