Comparing duration of aftereffects of natural and artificial entrainment

IMPROTA GC; VALENTINUZZI VS; ODA GA

San Diego

Simposio; 11th Annual Center for Circadian Biology Symposium; 2021

Center for Circadian Biology da Universidade da Califórnia San Diego

Under constant conditions, before displaying the free-running period, biological rhythms parameters may be influenced by the previous entrainment, these history-dependent manifestations are denominated aftereffects. Aftereffects are particularly useful in studies evaluating the previous entrainment conditions, especially when the subject of the study is not available (e.g. wild animals under natural LD cycles). In nature, animals can hide from direct exposure to the light (e.g. inside burrows), while the same is not the case in the lab, since animals usually are kept under a complete photoperiod regimen without shelters of any kind. our results indicate that, in tuco-tucos, The 24h period persists longer on aftereffects sampled following natural LD cycles in comparison with aftereffects following artificial LD cycles. Factors other than duration of exposure to the light phase of LD cycle, such as light composition spectrum and intensity, may have a crucial role on persistence of 24h aftereffects. The visible variability observed within each experimental group might be attributed to working with wild animals of varying ages and sexes. The research group plans to further analyze data gathered on previous works, including, for example, other artificial regimens such as LD 12:12 (closer to natural winter photoperiod).