Monday, March 07, 2005
Eraser Head
Michael Antle, neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, has found the body's clockwork. The timepiece, called the human circadian clock, is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain. Reporting in the current issue of the Trends in Neurosciences journal, Antle said the clock is a tiny tangle of 20,000 time-keeping neurons no bigger than "half the size of pencil eraser." Antle said that the cells are organized "in a complex network of groups," each performing a different function, like a distributed computer network.
The circadian clock tells us when to go to bed, when to wake up, and is responsible for jet lags.
Antle said he will next try to reset the clock by changing levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. But he cautioned that we were "probably still at least 10 years away from developing a pill that could reset the brain clock to eliminate jet lag, but this new perspective in how the cells are organized definitely improves our understanding."
All terrestrial organisms, even single-celled organisms, have circadian rhythms. Antle says that for every hour of time change a person experiences it takes about a day to fully adjust.
The circadian clock tells us when to go to bed, when to wake up, and is responsible for jet lags.
Antle said he will next try to reset the clock by changing levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. But he cautioned that we were "probably still at least 10 years away from developing a pill that could reset the brain clock to eliminate jet lag, but this new perspective in how the cells are organized definitely improves our understanding."
All terrestrial organisms, even single-celled organisms, have circadian rhythms. Antle says that for every hour of time change a person experiences it takes about a day to fully adjust.
