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Resetting of the circadian clock by a conditioned stimulus

Nature volume 379, pages 542–545 (1996)Cite this article

Abstract

ENVIRONMENTAL light is the dominant temporal cue for the entrainment of circadian rhythms. In mammals, light entrains circadian rhythms by daily resetting a pacemaker located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)1,2. Although it is widely held that phase resetting by light involves cellular elements within the SCN that are uniquely responsive to photic cues1,3, we now report that non-photic cues that reliably precede the onset of light can, through associative learning, come to activate these elements. In rats, a neutral non-photic stimulus paired with light in pavlovian conditioning trials was capable of eliciting cellular and behavioural effects characteristic of phase-dependent resetting of the pacemaker by light, the expression of the transcription factor Fos in SCN cells, and phase shifts in free-running activity and temperature rhythms4–7. Thus an associative learning process, pavlovian conditioning, provides a means whereby environmental cues that predict light onset can come to mimic the effect of light on the SCN pacemaker and thereby bring about entrainment of circadian rhythms.

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  1. Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd, Montreal, Québec, H3G IM8, Canada

    Shimon Amir & Jane Stewart

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  1. Shimon Amir
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  2. Jane Stewart
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Amir, S., Stewart, J. Resetting of the circadian clock by a conditioned stimulus. Nature 379, 542–545 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/379542a0

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