The locus coeruleus is emerging as a major new area of research interest, with many important functions such as regulating our attention and sleep.
Anyone with insomnia knows the impatience and frustration that accompanies sleeplessness, as you struggle to turn out the lights in your head and mute its inner voice. You long for a button or dial that could instantly dampen all that mental activity.
The idea of a mental dimmer switch is not quite as far-fetched as it might seem. Most neuroscientists now agree that our wakefulness exists on a kind of continuum. It is coordinated by a complex network of brain regions, at the heart of which lies a tiny bundle of neurons known as the “locus coeruleus”, Latin for “blue dot”.
It is a literal description: the neurons in the locus coeruleus are dyed the colour of sapphire from the production of a particular neurotransmitter, called norepinephrine. This is also a clue to the blue dot’s function, since norepinephrine controls our physiological and psychological arousal.
For a long time, scientists assumed that the locus coeruleus was dormant during sleep, but it is now becoming clear that it is never completely quiet, with low levels of intermittent activity that may regulate the depths of our slumbers. A better understanding of this process may help to treat the disturbed sleep associated with conditions like anxiety. BBC
