Chronotype differences in the acute behavioral responses to light and darkness and their neural subtracts

对光明和黑暗的急性行为反应的时间型差异及其神经减法

• 批准号: 1051919
• 负责人: Laura Smale
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-02-01 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1051919&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Chronotype; differences; acute; behavioral; responses

The rhythmic daily patterning of activity and rest is a fundamental feature of virtually all forms of vertebrate life, including our own, and is heavily influenced by light. Light has very different effects on day-active and night-active species, with the former responding to darkness by increasing sleep and the latter responding with a decrease. Very little is known about the brain mechanisms mediating these effects of light on rest/sleep, and essentially nothing is known about how these mechanisms differ among day-and night-active species. The research to be undertaken in this project will begin to fill this gap in our fundamental understanding of these issues suing multiple approaches. First the behavioral responses to light will be directly compared in nocturnal and diurnal rodents, then the neural mechanisms mediating those responses will be characterized. The work will determine how specific populations of cells in the brain are affected by the changes in lighting conditions that affect rest and activity, and the role that these structures play in the process will then evaluated experimentally. The project outcomes could yield fundamental new insights into processes that have a profound impact on the lives of day-active animals including humans. A better basic understanding of these issues will lead to improved strategies to help the millions of Americans with sleep problems cope with them more effectively. Strategies that could be informed by the outcomes of this project include appropriately patterned administration of light, as well as, ultimately, new, safer and more effective pharmacological treatments. The project will also engage many undergraduate and graduate students in the research enterprise in ways that will provide them an inside view of how science is done.

每天有节奏的活动和休息模式是几乎所有脊椎动物的基本特征，包括我们自己，并且受到光线的严重影响。光对白天活动和夜间活动的物种有非常不同的影响，前者对黑暗的反应是增加睡眠，而后者对黑暗的反应是减少睡眠。我们对调节光对休息/睡眠的影响的大脑机制知之甚少，基本上也不知道这些机制在白天和夜间活动的物种之间有何不同。在这个项目中进行的研究将开始填补我们对这些问题的基本理解的空白，使用多种方法。本文首先比较了夜行性和昼行性啮齿动物对光的行为反应，然后分析了这些反应的神经机制。这项工作将确定大脑中特定的细胞群是如何受到影响休息和活动的照明条件变化的影响的，这些结构在这一过程中所起的作用将通过实验来评估。该项目的成果可能会对对包括人类在内的日间活动动物的生活产生深远影响的过程产生根本性的新见解。对这些问题有了更好的基本了解，将有助于改进策略，帮助数百万有睡眠问题的美国人更有效地应对这些问题。这个项目的结果可能会告诉我们的策略包括适当的光照管理模式，以及，最终，新的，更安全，更有效的药物治疗。该项目还将吸引许多本科生和研究生参与研究事业，为他们提供科学是如何完成的内部视图。