Conférence

Sleep in flies: what does it tell us?

Axe neurophysiologie CIUSSS NIM

Stéphane Dissel, Ph.D.

My laboratory is using the Drosophila model to investigate the regulation and function of sleep. In particular, I am very interested to understand how sleep interacts with other key processes. One aspect or my research is centered on the positive effect that sleep plays in learning and memory. I have previously demonstrated that enhancing sleep could restore cognitive performance to classical memory mutants. My laboratory is now trying to uncover the mechanisms underlying these memory improvements. A second avenue of research is the interaction of sleep with other key motivated behaviors, such as feeding and mating. Because sleep, feeding and mating are mutually exclusive behaviors, the underlying question here is how does an individual chose and prioritize which behavior to engage in?