REM sleep stabilizes hypothalamic representation of feeding behavior

During rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, behavioral unresponsiveness contrasts strongly with intense brain-wide neural network dynamics. Yet, the physiological functions of this cellular activation remain unclear. Using in vivo calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, we found that inhibitory neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LHvgat) show unique activity patterns during feeding that are reactivated during REM, but not NREM, sleep. REM sleep specific optogenetic silencing of LHvgat cells induced a re-organization of these activity patterns during subsequent feeding behaviors accompanied by decreased food intake. Our findings provide evidence for a role for REM sleep in the maintenance of cellular representations of feeding behavior.

Methods
The data provided here were collected from in vivo calcium imaging of vesicular GABA and glycine-expressing neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LHvgat) of freely moving mice. The mice were either exploring an open field arena and feeding or sleeping in their home cages. The raw data were obtained as movies of cellular activity, which were then processed to extract activity time series for individual detected cells. The dataset additionally features the video tracking of the animals during the open field exploration and the respective behavioral scoring as well as EEG and EMG data and sleep scoring.