Title |
Parasite resistance and the adaptive significance of sleep
|
---|---|
Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, January 2009
|
DOI | 10.1186/1471-2148-9-7 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Brian T Preston, Isabella Capellini, Patrick McNamara, Robert A Barton, Charles L Nunn |
Abstract |
Sleep is a biological enigma. Despite occupying much of an animal's life, and having been scrutinized by numerous experimental studies, there is still no consensus on its function. Similarly, no hypothesis has yet explained why species have evolved such marked variation in their sleep requirements (from 3 to 20 hours a day in mammals). One intriguing but untested idea is that sleep has evolved by playing an important role in protecting animals from parasitic infection. This theory stems, in part, from clinical observations of intimate physiological links between sleep and the immune system. Here, we test this hypothesis by conducting comparative analyses of mammalian sleep, immune system parameters, and parasitism. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 80% |
Taiwan | 1 | 20% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 5 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 3 | 1% |
Brazil | 2 | <1% |
France | 2 | <1% |
United States | 2 | <1% |
Canada | 2 | <1% |
Germany | 1 | <1% |
Portugal | 1 | <1% |
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of | 1 | <1% |
Romania | 1 | <1% |
Other | 0 | 0% |
Unknown | 189 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Researcher | 47 | 23% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 44 | 22% |
Student > Bachelor | 20 | 10% |
Student > Master | 17 | 8% |
Student > Postgraduate | 11 | 5% |
Other | 35 | 17% |
Unknown | 30 | 15% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 100 | 49% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 14 | 7% |
Neuroscience | 11 | 5% |
Social Sciences | 10 | 5% |
Psychology | 9 | 4% |
Other | 17 | 8% |
Unknown | 43 | 21% |