Studies on how sleep affects cognitive functions in humans and animals could see major advances, thanks to a $7.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health given to sleep researchers working in the School of Medicine and Public Health.
UW-Madison Directors of the Center for Sleep and Consciousness, Dr. Giulio Tononi and Dr. Chiara Cirelli, will lead two of the projects investigating local sleep in the brains of fruit flies and mice.
The researchers study people and animals during sleep and while they are awake, comparing how their cognitive functions differ with a lack of sleep.
Cirelli, who has been conducting research in the field of sleep for over 20 years, said the grant is indispensible to the success of their research.
“[The grant] is essential; without this grant we basically would not be able to carry out this research,” Cirelli said.
She expects to see significant improvements in the research.
