The concentration of ions in the brain determines a person's mental state, waking up or sleeping?

Wake up or sleep? It may be determined by the concentration of ions in the brain. Shocking findings ---- potassium ions regulate your brain, not nerve activity.
when writing alanis Morissette's songs, the brain is awake (or to put you to sleep) in an interesting way.
are ions at work? Some scientists think so. Changes in ion concentration in the brain, rather than changes in neural activity, are the determining factors in the brain's process of sleeping and waking, according to a study in the
Journal of Science.
scientists found that the concentrationofs of potassium, calcium and magnesium ions in the brain cell fluid were different during sleep and stay ingest.
but they believe neurons, an electrically active cell that handles most of the brain's processing power, are responsible for changes in ion concentrations in brain cells.
fact, the study found that neurons are not the only switch that controls the brain's function.
a chemical in the brain, the neuromodulation substance, that increases the activity of neurons by altering the concentration of ions to bypass the role of neurons to wake the brain directly or put them to sleep.
scientists did not find a direct link between ion concentration stake in the brain and state of the brain, as they previously focused on the role of neurons, said Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist who led the study. When she discovered in her lab at Rochester University in New York that there was a drainage system during her sleep to wash the brain, she became interested in the process of sleeping.
when measuring changes in ion concentrations in fluids between brain cells, Nedergaard and her colleagues found that changes in ion concentrationfollowed a predictable pattern: higher concentrations of potassium ions in their brain cells when mice were awake (possibly in humans), and decreased concentrations during sleep.
, the opposite is true of calcium and magnesium ions: high concentrations during sleep and low concentrations when awake.
in the study, Nedergaard's team used a neuromodulation chemical called a wake-up cocktail to treat the brains of mice.
researchers found that when the mice were treated, the concentration of potassium ions in the liquid between brain cells increased rapidly.
this change in ion concentration occurs even after researchers add puffertoxin stoic toxins to organize neuronal activity.
the results suggest that these brain chemicals --- deepinephrine, acetylcholine dopamine, appetite peptides and histamines - can directly affect ion concentrations without the help of neurons.
, the specific mechanism by which these chemicals regulate ion concentration is unclear.
the same thing happens during anaesthetic surgery.
when sober mice were anaesthetized, the concentration of potassium ions in their brains dropped sharply, while the concentration of calcium and magnesium ions increased.
when the anaesthetic mice were treated with a "wake-up cocktail", the concentration of potassium ions in the mice's brains rose rapidly within a few seconds and the mice came to their senses.
but the concentration of calcium and magnesium ions only declined over a longer period of time. "These little mice are completely lost, they jump into the cage and run around with outthereing simply not knowing what they're doing, " said nedegaard,
.
these results may help those who wake up from anesthesia but are still confused. "Because the ion concentration in their brain hasn't returned to the level they were when they were awake," said Amita Sehgal, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine at the
. Nedergaard points out that further research on how ions affect sleep and wakefulness may eventually lead to a better understanding of sleep, consciousness, and coma. But Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says it may be a long way from actually using such results, such as improving the effectiveness of sleeping pills.
"It will take some time to apply these results, but the things themselves are startling enough".
she also points out that neurons are still active when people stay awake, and it would be interesting to address what causes changes in ion concentration in the brain during REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep).
Source: Decoding Medicine.