Manipulation of BDNF causes the overshoot-and-decline effect in DG after the recovery from sleep deprivation

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the neurogenesis of the dentate gyrus (DG) under sleep deprivation and brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF). The study focuses on DG because it is a critical part of memory formation and is easily affected by neurodegeneration. The paper proposes that BDNF will affect controlling the overshoot and its decline in the period of sleep deprivation and recovery. This study contains two experiments to test this hypothesis. In experiment one, TrkB inhibitors are used to manipulate the amount of BDNF to test its function. In experiment two, Erk5/TrkB inhibitors are used during recovery to test what Bcl2 does to the overshoot. In the future, this finding could potentially be part of the method used to treat neurodegeneration diseases like Alzheimer’s.