A half-center oscillator regulates sleep pressure

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 15 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02431-9

Hasenhuetl et al. show that neurons innervating the dorsal fan-shaped body of Drosophila form a half-center oscillator, a circuit motif typically found in central pattern generators for locomotion. Here, this circuit generates slow-wave activity for the regulation of sleep.