The Mammalian Brain Starts Eating Itself When It Doesn't Get Enough Sleep:

Study design and results summarized from:

Michele Bellesi, Luisa de Vivo, Mattia Chini, Francesca Gilli, Giulio Tononi, Chiara Cirelli. Sleep Loss Promotes Astrocytic
Phagocytosis and Microglial Activation in Mouse Cerebral Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 24 May 2017, 37 (21) 5263-
5273; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3981-16.2017

Neuroscientists have long speculated that chronic sleep deprivation causes brain damage. One specific theory suggests
that astrocytes (a type of “helper cell” in the brain that destroy old and damaged cells through phagocytosis) become
overly active and start to destroy healthy cells as well. A group of neuroscientists from the University of Wisconsin –
Madison hypothesized that if mice were exposed to varying amount of sleep deprivation then they would see increased
astrocyte activity in their brain, thus supporting the idea that sleep deprivation causes brain damage. In order to test
their hypothesis they created four different conditions: group 1 was left to sleep for 6 to 8 hours (well-rested), group 2
was periodically woken up from sleep (spontaneously awake), group 3 was kept awake for an extra 8 hours (sleep-
deprived), and group 4 was kept awake for five days straight (chronically sleep-deprived). The percentage of astrocyte
activity recorded in the four groups was as follows:

 Group 1: 5.7 %
 Group 2: 7.3 %
 Group 3: 8.4 %
 Group 4: 13.5 %

The differences between the four groups were found to be statistically significant.

A. Identify the independent variable

B. Operationally define the dependent variable
C. Identify the control group
D. Identify the experimental group (s)
E. Explain whether the data supports the researchers hypothesis
F. Draw a correctly labeled bar graph demonstrating their findings
G. Explain why the neuroscientists would be able to draw a conclusion about cause and effect
H. Explain why researchers used mice instead of humans for their experiment