Elda Arrigoni PhD

Elda Arrigoni interested in the basic mechanisms that regulate sleep. All he work has been conducted using electrophysiological recordings in in vitro brain slice preparations. He is interested in understanding how at the cellular level the excitability of wake-promoting and sleep-promoting neurons is controlled and how neurotransmitters and neuromodulators such as orexin, dynorphin and adenosine affect neuronal circuitry through pre and postsynaptic actions. For several years he has been studying the mechanism of action of the sleep factor adenosine. In particular he investigated the electrophysiological effects of adenosine on neurons of the basal forebrain, brainstem and of the ventrolateral preoptic (VLPO) nucleus.

He is currently engaged in two major projects. In collaboration with Dr. Thomas Scammell, He is studying how orexin peptides promote wakefulness by exciting basal forebrain neurons that activate the cortex. In addition it has been known for quite some time, that orexin neurons also produce and probably release the inhibitory peptide dynorphin but yet little is known about which basal forebrain neurons respond to orexin and which to dynorphin. In this project He is interested in determining using whole-cell recording in brain slices the mechanisms through which orexin and dynorphin act on different basal forebrain neurons. In particular, He is interested in understanding the dynamics of the effects of orexin - an excitatory peptide - and dynorphin an inhibitory peptide – and the synergistic roles they play in activating the basal forebrain neurons to promote wakefulness.