Sleep in the East African root rat, Tachyoryctes splendens
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Wiley
Abstract
The present study reports the results of an electrophysiological analysis of sleep in the East African root rat, Tachyoryctes splendens, belonging to the rodent subfamily Spalacinae. Telemetric electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic recordings, with associated video recording, on three root rats over a continuous 72 h period (12 h light/12 h dark cycle) were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the East African root rat has a total sleep time (TST) of 8.9 h per day. Despite this relatively short total sleep time in comparison to fossorial rodents, nonrapid eye movement (non‐REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep states showed similar physiological signatures to that observed in other rodents and no unusual sleep states were observed. REM occupied 19.7% of TST, which is within the range observed in other rodents. The root rats were extremely active during the dark period, and appeared to spend much of the light period in quiet wake while maintaining vigilance (as determined from both EEG recordings and behavioral observation). These recordings were made under normocapnic environmental conditions, which contrasts with the hypercapnic environment of their natural burrows.
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DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT :
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the
corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Keywords
Carbon‐dioxide levels, Circadian rhythms, Rodentia, Sleep evolution, Rapid eye movement (REM), Nonrapid eye movement (non-REM), East African root rat (Tachyoryctes splendens), Total sleep time (TST), SDG-15: Life on land
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG-15:Life on land
Citation
Kruger, J.‐L., Bhagwandin, A., Katandukila, J. V., Bennett, N. C., & Manger, P. R. (2024). Sleep in the East African root rat, Tachyoryctes splendens.
Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 341, 1111–1120. https://DOI.org/10.1002/jez.2839.