Sleep deprivation differentially recruits amygdala subregions in male and female mice

In wildtype mice, 4-h sleep deprivation recruits c-Fos–positive neurons in distinct amygdala subnuclei in a sex-specific pattern, with recovery reversing effects in males but not females.

• Why it matters: Acute sleep loss increases negative affect, and insufficient sleep is linked to depression risk, but which amygdala subregions are specifically impacted by sleep deprivation remains unclear.
• What they did: Wildtype male and female mice were kept undisturbed, exposed to 4-h sleep deprivation, or given 4-h sleep deprivation followed by 2-h recovery sleep; c-Fos was mapped using whole-brain clearing and automated cell counting, then quantified across amygdalar subnuclei.
• The result: Sleep deprivation increased c-Fos across multiple amygdalar subnuclei in males and largely reversed with recovery sleep, whereas in females it increased c-Fos only in the anterior basolateral amygdala and intercalated amygdala, which stayed activated after recovery.

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