Intended Audience
The Neuroscience Program welcomes Dr. Jessica Mong (Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Director of Graduate Education Program in Neuroscience at University of Maryland School of Medicine) who will give the final neuroscience seminar of the spring 2019 semester.
"To sleep, perchance to dream: The impact of biological sex and hormones"
Men and women sleep differently, with women reporting poorer quality and more disrupted sleep across various stages of life. The reason for this sex difference in sleep is unknown; however, clinical and basic research studies strongly implicate a role for gonadal steroids. Work from our lab seeks to address the mechanism by which gonadal steroids modulate sleep in females. Using a rat model, we have found that sex differences in sleep maybe due to activational effects of estradiol on sexually differentiated brain circuitry. Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying hormonal modulation of sleep is imperative for better treatment of sleep disruption in women.