Effect of a Hypocretin/Orexin Antagonist on Neurocogniive Performance.

摘要

During Year 5, we continued tests of the hypothesis that disfacilitation of wake-promoting systems by the hypocretin (Hcrt) receptor antagonist almorexant (ALM) results in less functional impairment than the inhibition of neural activity produced by the benzodiazepine receptor agonist zolpidem (ZOL). One paper was published (Morairty et al. 2014), another has been accepted for publication (Dittrich et al., in press) and a third is in resubmission (Vazquez-DeRose et al., submitted). Data collection for Aims 2c and 3b.2 have been completed and data analysis ongoing; manuscripts will be written and submitted during Year 6. Data collection and analysis of Aim 3a is nearing completion; an abstract summarizing this work has been submitted for presentation at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience meeting. Data collection for Aims 3b.3, 4c and 6a have been initiated. The overall results obtained to date are consistent with the hypothesis that the hypocretin/orexin antagonist ALM produces less functional impairment than the benzodiazepine receptor agonist zolpidem (ZOL) because ZOL causes a general inhibition of neural activity whereas ALM specifically disfacilitates wake-promoting systems.