Fear entrainment
Circadian clocks are entrained by 24-h environmental cycles and this process assures the synchrony of circadian rhythms with the temporal environment. The light-dark cycle is the most prominent cycle entraining circadian systems but other 24-h cycles can entrain them as well. When mice or rats are housed in a cage divided between a safe nest and a foraging area, animals forage and feed during the dark phase. If the foraging area is made dangerous by applying aversive stimuli only during the dark phase, the animals switch their foraging and feeding behavior to the light phase. This diurnal behavior represents the output of an entrained circadian clock. We are currently investigating the location of this clock and the neural circuitry that underlies this entrainment. |
Fear entrainment.
|