• Research Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, 1994 -1999
• Associate Professor of Anatomy, Eastern Virginia Medical School, 1999 to Present

Teaching

• Neuroscience

Basic Science Research Focus Group

• Neuroscience

Education

• B.S., Psychology, North Georgia College
• MS, Ph.D. Physiological Psychology, University of Georgia
• Postdoctoral, Physiology, University of Pennsylvania

Research Interests

Influence of emotion on sleep

The long-term goal of our research program is to understand the impact of emotion and significant environmental events on sleep. Emotional state has a strong influence on sleep quality and amount. This statement is intuitive, and factually supported by the observed role of emotional factors in human sleep medicine, and in psychiatric disorders in which sleep is affected. Recent work indicates that the amygdala, the putative limbic center of emotion, also may be a key modulator of sleep. Our current research is focused on understanding how the amygdala and emotional situations affect sleep. In particular we are interested in how the amygdala modulates rapid eye movement sleep, and the role of neurochemicals (e.g., corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH)) in stress-induced alterations in sleep.

This research has implications for sleep pathology and should increase our understanding of how stress and anxiety affect sleep. Such understanding may be critical for insight into sleep disorders such as insomnia and into mental disorders in which sleep is affected. It also may be especially relevant to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is typically characterized by a prominent sleep disturbance in the aftermath of exposure to a psychologically traumatic stressor.

CRH immunostaining in the  central nucleus of the amygdala

Recent References

• Deboer, T. Sanford, L.D., Ross, R.J., and Morrison, A.R. (1999). Electrical stimulation in the amygdala increases the amplitude of elicited ponto-geniculo-occipital waves. Physiology and Behavior, 66: 119-124.
• Sanford, L.D., Silvestri, A.J., Ross, R.J., and Morrison, A.R. (2001). Influence of fear conditioning on elicited ponto-geniculo-occipital waves and rapid eye movement sleep. Archives of Italian Biology, 139:169-184.
• Sanford, L.D., Cheng, C.S., Tang, X., Silvestri, A.J., Mann, G.L., Ross, R.J. and Morrison, A.R. (2001). Sleep and behavior in rats with pontine lesions producing REM without atonia. Sleep Research Online 4(1): 1-5. http://www.sro.org/2001/Sanford/1/.

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