In the late 18th century, an unusual structure was discovered deep in the human brain – the claustrum (from 'cloistered' = enclosed), narrow, long and tall, like a drape. It was later found to be the brain area with the highest connectivity compared to its size and to be strongly connected with frontal areas of the brain that elicit control over behavior. Now, a new Israeli study found that the claustrum plays a role in regulating levels of wakefulness, attention and attentiveness.
The study was headed by Prof. Ami Citri and Dr. Gal Atlan of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University, in cooperation with the research team headed by Prof.
Yuval Nir at Tel Aviv University. Their finds were published recently in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers documented neural activity in the claustrum of mice during sleep and while the mice performed an attention-demanding task, and found a correlation between low activity and increased responsivity.
Thus, during sleep, when claustrum neurons are functioning on a low level, the mice tended to wake up due to disturbances in their surroundings; When attempting to perform an attention-demanding task, lower activity in the claustrum was linked to over-wakefulness and impulsive behavior. On the other hand, when claustrum activity was high, the mice slept a deeper sleep, even during environmental disturbances, and when performing an attention-demanding task they did not behave rashly, and even b.
