Circadian dependence of locomotor activity statistics

GUADALUPE CASCALLARES; SABRINA RIVA; DIANA LORENA FRANCO; SEBASTIAN RISAU GUSMAN; PABLO M GLEISER

Valparaiso

Simposio; XIV Latin American Symposium on Chronobiology; 2017

We monitor the locomotor activity of wildtype fly Drosophila and clock mutants using custom made housingand video tracking software in order to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution. We analyze the statisticsof movement and quiescence in 12 hours of light - 12 hours of dark LD and also in constant darkness DDconditions. The statistical properties reveal patterns that expose the role of the circadian clock. In particularthe exponential distribution of movement and the power law quiescence distribution for the wild type presentthe same behavior in LD and DD. In contrast these distributions present changes in per01 clock mutant. Wealso analyze the interevent time distribution and again find the same behaviors in wild type for LD and DDand contrasting differences for the distributions in LD and DD in clock mutants. We consider the rate of eventswhen the time series is analyzed using time windows of different sizes. We find strong finite size effects inwild type series, that can be rescaled using exactly the same scaling function and exponents for all flies in LDand DD. For the clock mutants the distributions do not present scaling and show different behaviors in LD andDD. We compare our results with studies in the literature involving mammals and find surprising similaritiesthat point to a conserved mechanism.