Summary
This dissertation-level research identifies specific ionic and genetic mechanisms—including sex-based GABA signaling differences, VIP deficits, and altered potassium currents—that disrupt SCN electrical rhythms and circadian behavior. These findings have implications for understanding why certain populations (e.g., females, Huntington's disease patients) are more vulnerable to circadian disruption and may be harder to re-entrain with light-based interventions.
Key Findings
- Sex differences in GABA excitation/inhibition balance in the SCN may predispose females to greater circadian disruption.
- Loss of VIP signaling is associated with disrupted SCN electrical activity rhythms and impaired photic entrainment.
- In the BACHD mouse model of Huntington's disease, reduced A-type/H potassium currents and enhanced BK potassium currents are associated with loss of rhythmic SCN electrical activity.
Categories
Sleep & Circadian Health: Investigates ionic and electrical mechanisms in the SCN that underlie circadian rhythm disruption, with implications for entrainment and rhythmic behavior.
The Science of Light: Examines photic entrainment deficits linked to VIP signaling disruption, informing understanding of how light input is processed by the circadian clock.
Author(s)
DA Kuljis
Publication Year
2015
Related Publications
Sleep & Circadian Health
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- The two‐process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
- Strange vision: ganglion cells as circadian photoreceptors
The Science of Light
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- Color appearance models
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice