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The bunker experiment was a scientific experiment that began in 1966 to test whether humans, like other species, have an intrinsic circadian clock. [1] It was started by Jürgen Aschoff and Rütger Wever of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology and later taken over by Jürgen Zulley.
The Andechs bunker was used to study human circadian rhythms under a range of conditions, including visual blindness and depression. The results improved understanding of the mechanisms that synchronize the circadian pacemaker to the environment, and had important implications for understanding the cyclicity of many affective disorders .
A circadian rhythm (/ s ər ˈ k eɪ d i ə n /), or circadian cycle, is a natural oscillation that repeats roughly every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., endogenous ) and responds to the environment (is entrained by the environment).
In vertebrates, the master circadian clock is contained within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a bilateral nerve cluster of about 20,000 neurons. [10] [11] The SCN itself is located in the hypothalamus, a small region of the brain situated directly above the optic chiasm, where it receives input from specialized photosensitive ganglion cells in the retina via the retinohypothalamic tract.
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mPer1 and mPer2 are necessary for clock function in the brain, while mPer3 only plays a discernible role in the circadian rhythms of peripheral tissues. Knocking out either mPer1 or mPer2 causes a change in period, with mPer1 knockouts free-running with a shorter period and mPer2 knockouts free running with a longer period compared to the ...
The best studied rhythm in chronobiology is the circadian rhythm, a roughly 24-hour cycle shown by physiological processes in all these organisms. The term circadian comes from the Latin circa, meaning "around" and dies, "day", meaning "approximately a day." It is regulated by circadian clocks.
It assists the body with energy production, DNA repair, and overall cellular health, says Dr. Gmyrek, and research has also found that it plays a key role in regulating metabolism and circadian ...