Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 25, Issue 11, Pages 3195-3216Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05581.x
Keywords
amygdala; arcuate nucleus; bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; clock gene expression; food-entrainable oscillator; habenula; olfactory bulb
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN) is the master circadian pacemaker or clock in the mammalian brain. Canonical theory holds that the output from this single, dominant clock is responsible for driving most daily rhythms in physiology and behaviour. However, important recent findings challenge this uniclock model and reveal clock-like activities in many neural and non-neural tissues. Thus, in addition to the SCN, a number of areas of the mammalian brain including the olfactory bulb, amygdala, lateral habenula and a variety of nuclei in the hypothalamus, express circadian rhythms in core clock gene expression, hormone output and electrical activity. This review examines the evidence for extra-SCN circadian oscillators in the mammalian brain and highlights some of the essential properties and key differences between brain oscillators. The demonstration of neural pacemakers outside the SCN has wide-ranging implications for models of the circadian system at a whole-organism level.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available