A2

Biopsychology

● Biological Rhythms
● The Brain
 Biological Rhythms - Circadian Rhythms
Discuss research into circadian rhythms
A biological rhythm is a change in the
body processes or behaviour in response
to cyclical changes within the
environment.

Chronobiology

Chrono- time

Biology- study of living things

Intro this week and PREP to read and complete evaluation

 What do you need to know?
• Biological rhythms - introduction
• Circadian rhythms - The sleep/wake
cycle
• Research into the sleep/wake cycle
• Practical application of research
findings - shift work and jet lag
• Evaluation of research
 Biological Rhythms - Introduction
All living organisms - plants, animals and people -
are subject to biological rhythms and these exert an
important influence on the ways in which the body
system behaves, this includes the 24-hour cycle of
sleep and rest calleD CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS. (Circa-
‘almost’ Dian ‘day’
All biological rhythms are regulated and governed by
two things:
1. Endogenous pacemakers - The body’s internal body
clocks that regulate biological rhythms e.g.
suprachiasmatic nucleus - detects light, even
when eyes are closed.
2. Exogenous zeitgebers - External factors in the
environment which reset our biological clocks
e.g. light, social cues
We will be covering this
in more detail SOON!
 AO1: DELETE INCORRECT WORD

• Circadian rhythms are a biological version of a computer/clock which are

endogenous/exongenous. This means that they are generated from outside/within the

body. Circadian rhythms are found inside most living cells, plants, animals and

humans. Their origin dates back 3.5 billion years. Rhythms are a response to the most

predictable condition of life on earth, cold/dark at night and light/hotin the day.

They promote the best use of daylight hours and rest/energy in the darkness when

cell/mental reparation and memory/ adjustment can be carried out for the next day.

Daylight regulates the clock, and modern research has looked at the effect of

bright/artificial light on humans and how far that may disrupt our sleep and health.

Circadian means a full day/almost a day is a biological process which is driven by an

internal oscillator which can persist and alter as periodicity of light and dark

change, i.e.as days get shorter in the winter/summer.

 AO1: DELETE INCORRECT WORD

• Circadian rhythms are a biological version of a clock which are

endogenous. This means that they are generated from within the body.

Circadian rhythms are found inside most living cells, plants, animals and

humans. Their origin dates back 3.5 billion years. Rhythms are a response

to the most predictable condition of life on earth dark at night and light

in the day. They promote the best use of daylight hours and rest in the

darkness when cell reparation and memory adjustment can be carried out for

the next day. Daylight regulates the clock, and modern research has looked

at the effect of artificial light on humans and how far that may disrupt

our sleep and health. Circadian means a ‘almost a day’ and is driven by an

internal oscillator which can persist and alter as periodicity of light

and dark change, i.e.as days get shorter in the winter.

Circadian Rhythms - 24 hour cycles
1) SLEEP-WAKE CYCLE

The sleep/wake cycle:

Feeling drowsy at night
time and alert during the
day demonstrates the effect
of daylight.
But what if we tried to
change this?
What is the biological
clock was ‘left to its own What if we were exposed to NO light
devices’? and had no idea what time of day it
was?
 SLEEP/WAKE CYCLE - cycles between
sleepiness and alertness

For diurnal
species,
like humans,
active
during the
day, the CR
starts ‘gets
quicker’
just before
waking

‘Gets slower’
Sleep-pressure builds
When it’s dark at night, your eyes send a signal to
the hypothalamus that it’s time to feel tired. Your
brain, in turn, sends a signal to your body to
release melatonin, which makes your body tired and
sleepy. 

A part of your hypothalamus regulates your circadian

rhythm -the suprachiasmatic nucleus
Endogenous pacemaker
 Entrainment is the
synchronisation or alignment of
the internal biological clock
rhythm, to external time cues,
such as the natural dark-light cycle.
-Tiny piece of brain anatomy
registers information about light and
dark (via the optic nerve)
-Communicates chemically with other
brain areas and orchestrates
everything in the body in terms of
light exposure
-If something goes wrong- all other
rhythms become out-of-whack
-Most affected by blue light

Sits above the optic chiasm (here

optic nerves cross) in the
hypothalamus-

SUPRACHIASMATIC NUCLEI

This is a _____ed_____ structure of 50,000 cells

which together form the ____________ _________. The
SCN generates ____ hour oscillations. If the SCN is
damaged by _________ for example, people will
experience dissolution and collapse of circadian
rhythms
 SCN=Molecular clock
AO1 extra summarise this with annotation to your sheet for an
extra challenge!

The central clock ticks by creating molecules. These

molecules get broken down by other molecules in the
body.
This takes approximately 24 hours.
This molecular cycle which determines the length of
your rhythm i.e. your chronotype-
(whether you’re a night owl or a lark.
This clock is re-set by the light/dark cycle.

(Early risers = less than 24hrs Late risers = longer than 24hrs)
Camping studies suggest that even night owls become more
like larks due to daylight exposure and no artificial
light.
Melatonin helps to tell organs and tissues that night is
approaching, so they sleep earlier.
 Circadian Rhythms - 24 hour cycles
Two examples of circadian rhythms:
1) Sleep/wake cycle

2) Core body temperature

The sleep/wake cycle:

Feeling drowsy at night
time and alert during
the day demonstrates the
effect of daylight.
But what if we tried to
change this? What if the
biological clock was
‘left to its own What if we were exposed to NO light
devices’? and had no idea what time of day it
FREE RUNNING? was?
AO2 application
What could we use for evaluation?
 Michel Siffre - The Cave Study

In 1975, a French speleologist named Michel Siffre spent 179

days living in total isolation in a subterranean cave in Texas,
without access to clock, calendar, or sun. (This was his second
study)
Sleeping and eating only when his body told him to, his goal What is
was to discover how the natural rhythms of human life a
free-ru
would be affected by living “beyond time.”in the absence of nning
exogenous zeitgebers cycle?
 Michel Siffre - The Cave Study
His findings were:
• He settled into a sleep/wake cycle of
25 to 32 hours “My sleep was perfect!
My body chose by itself when to sleep
and when to eat and when to rise.”
Conclusion:
• Supports the assumption that
endogenous pacemakers exert an
influence on circadian rhythms
 ☹
• Artificial light may affect the
circadian rhythm in the same way as
actual daylight.

• In Siffre’s early studies, artificial

light sources were not eliminated as he
used artificial light when he was awake.
It is likely that this could have
suppressed the production of
_________________. Therefore, artificial
light is a confounding variable that
possibly has an impact on the findings.
Ethical issues ☹
Extra research…. Supports or challenge?
Aschoff and Wever (1976)
Placed student participants
in a bunker for 4 weeks with
no natural light.

They settled into a

sleep/wake cycle of between
But what about the
25 and 27 hours (apart from role of exogenous
one which extended to 29 zeitgebers?
hours).
They still used
artificial light,
This suggests that endogenous typical meal
pacemakers control the times….perhaps these
sleep/wake cycle in the were confounding
variables?
absence of light cues.
 Research: Circadian rhythms are HARDCORE!!
• Folkard et al (1985) isolated 12
participants from natural light for
3 weeks (dark cave), manipulating
the clocks so that only 22 hours
passed a day.

• None of the Ps could adjust

conformably to the pace of the
clock, showing the strength of the
circadian rhythm as a free-running
cycle.
• The findings question the extent to
which our sleep/wake cycle can be
overridden by ‘exogenous
zeitgebers’ like social cues
 ☹

• Individual differences exist in

sleep/wake cycles, for example Duffy et
al (2000) found that early risers prefer
6am to 10pm, whereas late risers prefer
10am until 1pm. Also, individual cycles
can vary, in some cases from 13-65 hours.
She plays a part in this too. Therefore the
findings from sleep studies, however
insightful, may not apply to all
individuals.
 Extra AO3 for
the
self-challengers!

Remember Campbell found them behind the knee!

“Little is known about the output pathway in

which the clock communicates with the
external world. We know that light sets the
internal clock. i.e body is put to sleep
or woken up via information from the eye.
However, how exactly does the ‘clock’
communicate with the body’s circadian
network?
There is a lot about the biology, that we
know little about.
Suggests we're at the beginning of really
understanding this.
 The AO3: You need 4 coloured highlighters or pens

• Read through ALL the points….then the

explanations, then the elaborations
and/or the ‘however’ comments.
• The match the information to create
developed points.
 PREP:
COMPLETE
THESE NOTES