The biological clocks of diurnal and nocturnal animals differ in their neural structure. Free Technical Library News

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The biological clocks of day and night animals differ in their neural structure.

10.09.2016

The most obvious manifestation of biological rhythms is the alternation of sleep and wakefulness: as night approaches, our internal clock reminds us that it is time to sleep, and in the morning, obeying the same clockwork, we wake up. However, there are animals that do not sleep, on the contrary, in the dark, and the day for them is a time of rest, as for us it is night. How is it that the same system of circadian rhythms is able to issue opposite commands?

The main detail in the internal clock is the so-called suprachiasmatic, or suprachiasmatic nucleus - a special area in the hypothalamus. The suprachiasmatic nucleus generates circadian rhythms, regulates the level of hormones on which the sleep and wake cycles depend, and synchronizes the work of all other “clock departments” in tissues and organs.

Obviously, our internal rhythms must somehow be compared with what is happening outside, and the nucleus itself receives information about whether it is day or night from the photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. They differ from other ganglion cells precisely in that they can feel light, and mainly in the blue region of the spectrum. Recall that the photosensitive cells in the retina are rods and cones, and ganglion cells conduct the signal coming from them. But the photosensitive ganglion cells turned out to be special - they, as we just said, can perceive light themselves, and are connected to the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It is believed that it is with the help of them that the core is oriented in time of day.

Previously, it was believed that differences in the biological clock system begin after the suprachiasmatic nucleus - supposedly after it there is a certain switch that, having received a signal from the nucleus, interprets it differently in daytime and nocturnal animals: the nighttime impulse turns into a command to “sleep” in daytime and in the command "do not sleep" at night. However, such a switch, which would be after the suprachiasmatic nucleus, has never been found - apparently because it is actually in front of it.

Qun-Yong Zhou and his colleagues from the University of California at Irvine write in an article in Molecular Brain that the decisive role here belongs to the same photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, about which everyone thought that their task was only to transmit information into the core. Comparing how the neural mechanisms that control sleep and wakefulness in monkeys and mice work, the researchers noticed two competing clock centers in the brains of both.

In mice, the "morning" signal from retinal cells (which, we recall, are especially sensitive to blue light) goes to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, where it turns into the "sleep" command. But photoreceptor cells in the retina are not only connected to the nucleus, they also send a signal to a midbrain structure called the superior colliculus, and in monkeys, the "invigorating" signals of the superior colliculus override the carotid impulses of the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

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