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Circadian rhythms

Light hits mood head-on

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 14, pages 2–3 (2013)Cite this article

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exposure of ipRGCs to light can directly influence behaviour, learning and synaptic plasticity without altering circadian rhythmicity or sleep

To investigate the effects of inappropriately timed light exposure, the authors subjected mice to an ultradian light–dark cycle of 3.5 h of light followed by 3.5 h of dark. Although these animals had a normal sleep architecture and displayed circadian rhythmicity of core body temperature and general activity levels, they showed deficits in hippocampal long-term potentiation and impaired performance in the Morris water maze task, a hippocampus-dependent learning test. Furthermore, these animals displayed depression-like behaviours and increased serum corticosterone (which is associated with depression in humans). Notably, the mice showed normal behaviour in three different experimental paradigms for anxiety, indicating that increased corticosterone is specifically linked to depressive-like behaviour. Chronic treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine attenuated these depressive-like responses and restored learning abilities. It did not alter circadian rhythmicity but reduced overall corticosterone levels, suggesting that this latter effect might underlie the improved behavioural responses.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. LeGates, T. A. et al. Aberrant light directly impairs mood and learning through melanopsin-expressing neurons. Nature 14 Nov 2012 (doi:10.1038/nature11673)

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  1. Sian Lewis
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Lewis, S. Light hits mood head-on. Nat Rev Neurosci 14, 2–3 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3410

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