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Published online 22 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.848
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Your belly's very own body clock
Food availability can shift sleep patterns, though researchers aren't sure how.
Your stomach may truly have a mind of its own. A tiny area of the brain may switch sleep schedules to match up with mealtimes.
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The article describes the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus as a clump of cells that sits "close to the area of the brain that manages ordinary circadian responses to light and dark." This description supposes that there is only one such region but in fact contrary to what many sources, including review articles in Nature over the last decade, claim the SCN is not the only such region. There are other regions of the brain, e.g. the ventral LGN, that take retinal input and modulate circadian behaviour.