Circadian Integration of Photic and Non-photic Stimuli

描述（由申请人提供）：有效重置内部生物钟对于生物钟适应时差和治疗生物钟睡眠障碍是必要的。虽然人们普遍认为，光和非光刺激可以相移的内部昼夜节律计时系统，很少有人知道光和非光的时间线索是如何整合，以产生光相移的人的昼夜节律时钟。主要在非人类中进行的研究结果表明，光和非光信息是由昼夜节律计时系统整合的。我们假设，光和非光信息也是由昼夜节律的时间保持系统在人类集成。如果光和非光时间线索的结合增强了人类的相移，那么这样的发现将对昼夜节律相关睡眠障碍的治疗和快速适应时差产生重要影响。我们建议评估的相位延迟和相位提前的人的生物钟引起的强光照射与非光的线索相结合。目前的拨款提案是为了提高我们对各种刺激（如光或内源性因素）诱导睡眠和昼夜节律的机制的理解。这项研究的新颖之处在于，它提出进行一系列研究，旨在系统地研究人类生物钟整合光和非光信息的能力，从而增强人类生物钟计时系统的相移。我们预计，这项研究的结果可能对开发新的时差和睡眠障碍治疗方法具有重要意义，这些疾病会导致患者比预期更晚或更早上床睡觉。所提出的治疗方法也可能对改善太空飞行等环境中的睡眠有影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Effective resetting of the internal circadian clock is necessary for circadian adaptation to jet lag and for the treatment of circadian sleep disorders. While it is generally recognized that photic and non-photic stimuli can phase shift the internal circadian timekeeping system, little is known about how photic and non-photic time cues are integrated to produce photic phase shifts of the human circadian clock. Results from studies predominantly conducted in non-humans indicate that photic and non-photic information is integrated by the circadian time keeping system. We hypothesize that photic and non-photic information is also integrated by the circadian time keeping system in humans. If the combination of photic and non-photic time cues enhances phase shifts in humans, such a finding would have important implications for the treatment of circadian-related sleep disorders and for rapid adaptation to jet lag. We propose to evaluate phase delays and phase advances of the human circadian clock induced by the combination of bright light exposure with non-photic cues. The current grant proposal is to improve our understanding of the mechanisms through which various stimuli such as light or endogenous factors entrain sleep and circadian rhythms. The research is novel in that it proposes to conduct a series of studies designed to systematically examine the ability of photic and non-photic information to be integrated by the human circadian clock and thus result in enhanced phase shifts of the human circadian timing system. We anticipate that the results of the proposed study may have significant implications for developing new treatments for jet lag and for sleep disorders that cause patients to go to bed much later or earlier than desired. The proposed treatments may also have implications for improving sleep in environments such as space flight.