Summary
This review synthesizes current understanding of how light and the circadian system jointly regulate brain function, highlighting the risks of chronodisruption from light at night and neurodegeneration. For lighting designers and healthcare professionals, it underscores the critical importance of maintaining robust light/dark cycles to support circadian entrainment and prevent adverse brain function outcomes.
Key Findings
- Light not only entrains circadian rhythms but also directly drives rhythmic brain function and behavior, particularly in nocturnal mammals, independent of the circadian clock.
- Chronodisruption from light at night, genetic clock disruptions, or neurodegenerative diseases can impair circadian rhythmicity in the brain, with implications for cognitive and neurological health.
- The mammalian circadian system involves complex interactions between central (SCN) and peripheral clocks, with light as the primary environmental zeitgeber synchronizing these components.
Categories
Sleep & Circadian Health: Reviews how light and endogenous circadian clocks interact to regulate rhythmic brain function and entrainment to light/dark cycles.
The Science of Light: Discusses molecular circadian clockwork, light perception pathways, and effects of light at night on circadian system components.
Dementia & Elder Care: Addresses chronodisruption caused by neurodegenerative diseases as a factor disrupting circadian rhythms in the brain.
Author(s)
C von Gall
Publication Year
2022
Number of Citations
26
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 twoāprocess 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
Dementia & Elder Care
- Light therapy and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia: past, present, and future
- New strategies for neuroprotection in glaucoma, a disease that affects the central nervous system
- Sleep and circadian rhythms in Parkinson's disease and preclinical models
- Chronobioengineering indoor lighting to enhance facilities for ageing and Alzheimer's disorder
- The clock is ticking. Ageing of the circadian system: from physiology to cell cycle