Ablation of the geniculo-hypothalamic tract alters circadian activity rhythms of hamsters housed under constant light

Mary E. Harrington, Benjamin Rusak

Producción científica: Contribución a una revistaArtículorevisión exhaustiva

93 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Retino-recipient cells in the hamster lateral geniculate nucleus project to the suprachiasmatic nucleus via the geniculo-hypothalamic tract (GHT). GHT-ablation alters phase advance shifts to light pulses in a hamster's late subjective night. In this study, the effects of GHT-ablation on wheel-running rhythms of hamsters housed under continuous illumination (LL) were assessed. In the first experiment, hamsters received GHT-ablation or sham surgery while under a light: dark schedule and were subsequently exposed to 250 days of LL. GHT-ablated hamsters showed rhythms with shorter periods and were less likely to show split activity rhythms than sham-operated or partial-lesion controls. In the second experiment, hamsters were housed under LL until rhythms split into two components: hamsters then received either GHT-ablation or sham surgery. Four of seven GHT-ablated hamsters showed re-fusion of their activity pattern into one component, while none of the eight sham-operated animals showed such re-fusion. The results of these two experiments indicate that GHT-ablation alters the responsiveness of the activity rhythm pacemaker to LL exposure.

Idioma originalEnglish
Páginas (desde-hasta)183-189
Número de páginas7
PublicaciónPhysiology and Behavior
Volumen42
N.º2
DOI
EstadoPublished - 1988

Nota bibliográfica

Funding Information:
We are very grateth\[ to Cathy Legacy-Barrett. Patricia Dickson and Tim Delaney for their skilled technical asfistance. This research was supported by grants from MRC of Canada (MA-8929), NSERC of Canada (A0305) and Dalhousie University RDFS. M. E. Har-rington was supported by a Killam Memorial Scholarship during parl of this study.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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