Finding the cells that put our brain to sleep

You’re feeling sleepy… Finding the cells that put our brain to sleep Rare cells with widespread connectivity seem to be able to trigger sleep.

11 Credit: JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Credit: JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav For a long time, sleep research has treated the cerebral cortex as a passive follower reacting to signals from the deep brain. “Usually, sleep is associated with being controlled by subcortical regions,” said Geoffrey Terral, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.