Most adult sleep is non-rapid eye movement (REM), which is restorative and promotes resilience to stressful conditions. However, the brain mechanisms for non-REM sleep's relationship to stress resilience remain unclear. New in JNeurosci , Christopher Ehlen, from Morehouse School of Medicine, and colleagues explored how cortical brain activity in mice during non-REM influences behavioral responses to stressful social situations.
The researchers specifically looked at activity in the prelimbic cortex, a brain region that puts emotional responses in context. There was suppressed activity in the prelimbic cortex, a defining feature of sleep, that predicted how resilient mice were to stressful experiences. More specifically, this silencing of neurons occurred during “slow-wave activity,” or deep sleep. Following stressful experiences, these mice also experienced a reorganization of neural activity; the speed of neuron activity was redistributed in the prelimbic cortex.
Says Ehlen, “The quality of sleep seems to be dictating how the prelimbic cortex is suppressing emotional responses, which we think is represented as neural firing rate. Our assumption is that animals susceptible to stress aren’t sleeping as deeply and that there is an active response to stress that is intact in resilient animals because of their deep sleep.”
The researchers plan to explore whether depriving stress resilient mice of sleep alters neural activity in the prelimbic cortex. They also hope this work will inform human studies seeking neurobiological markers for stress resilience or susceptibility.
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About JNeurosci
JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.
JNeurosci
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-26.2026
Adaptive Reorganization of Local Sleep and Prelimbic Cortical Circuits Predict Behavioral Resilience to Social Defeat Stress
7-Sep-2026
The authors declare no competing financial interests.