WIKIMEDIA, TIIA MONTOIn mice, just before bedtime, neurons of the master circadian clock release the neurotransmitter vasopressin to activate the brain’s thirst center and prompt the animals to drink, according to a paper published today (September 28) in Nature. The study represents the first mechanical description of how this clock drives behavior in mammals.
“The big issue that [the authors] tap into is how the circadian clock communicates with the rest of the brain and the body,” said chronobiologist Michael Antle of the University of Calgary, Canada, who was not involved in the study. “We know we’ve got this clock, we know it regulates our behavior and physiology . . . but we didn’t know how it did,” he added. “[The authors] have done a fantastic job of chasing down this issue, and I was really impressed by their thoroughness.”
Sleeping, eating, body temperature, urinating—there is a long list of behaviors and physiological processes in mammals that are governed in part by circadian regulation. Each of these is ultimately controlled by the brain’s master clock: the several thousand neurons ...
