Although descriptions of the pineal gland date back to antiquity, its functions in animal

kingdom including human are poorly understood (Macchi & Bruce, 2004). The pineal gland

is still a mystery largely related to its small pea size, particular shape, location which is deep

within the brain, and being an unpaired single structure in the midline (Berhoumaa, 2013).

Although for a long considered to be an insignificant rudiment of phylogeny, it is now

established that pineal is a secretory organ (endocrine function) and is intimately related to

photoperiodic information. It communicates with the body through melatonin and other

neurohormones to establish a chronobiological alignment of internal rhythms (Berhoumaa,

2013; Ekstrom & Meissl, 2003). It is an important contributor in what we perceive beyond

our conventional five physical senses. However, such perceptions are ambiguous and

difficult to quantify and qualify. Science as well as contemporary philosophies have diverse

interpretations with little agreement on them. In our opinion, the divergence is more

because of different ways of interpretation of the issue and beliefs rather than desire to

learn from each other's experience to find an answer. This review is an attempt to evaluate

the anatomical and physiological significance of the pineal gland, AIM 

Photoperiodism is the ability of plants and animals to measure environmental day length

(photoperiod), a process that underlies the so-called biological calendar (Nelson et al., 2010).

The biological ability to measure day length permits organisms to ascertain the time of year and

engage in seasonally appropriate adaptations. Although the specific mechanisms that underlie the

ability to measure day length differ among taxa, individuals that respond to day length can

precisely, and reliably, ascertain the time of year with just two bits of data: the length of the daily

photoperiod, and whether day lengths are increasing or decreasing. For individuals of many
species, the annual cycle of changing photoperiod provides the environmental switch between

seasonal phenotypes. Changes in day length, while probably of little direct importance to most

animals, provide the most error-free indication of time of year, and thus enable individuals to

anticipate seasonal conditions.  To understand photoperiodism, it is important to understand how

animals keep time physiologically. The pineal gland, and its hormone melatonin, mediates

photoperiodic time measurement in mammals (Denlinger et al., 2010; Malpaux et al., 2001).

Information about environmental light arrives to the brain via the lateral eyes in mammals

(Nelson and Zucker 1981). A nonvisual neuronal pathway, the retinohypothalamic tract, carries

light information from melanopsin expressing retinal ganglion cells directly to the

suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus (Campbell  et al., 1983; Lucas et al., 1999

and Simonneaux and Ribelayga 2003). The SCN are the primary mammalian biological clocks

(Schwartz et al., 2001). From the SCN, the main pathway for photoperiod information to the

pineal gland is relayed through the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, leaving the

brain through the intermediolateral cells of the upper spinal cord, and then through the superior

cervical ganglion. Postganglionic noradrenergic fibers project back into the brain and innervate

the pineal gland, where neural information is transduced into a hormonal message

(Chattoraj 2009; Falcon et al., 2009). The duration of this nocturnal ‘peak’ varies inversely with

day length in several species, including humans. Most mammals use changes in day length to

detect change of season and regulate seasonal behavior. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

mediates these responses by generating an endogenous neural signal of day length. The SCN

adjusts the duration of this signal in response to seasonal changes in the solar day, which it

detects via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) (Schwartz et al., 2001). Through efferent

connections from the SCN to the pineal gland, the day-length signal is encoded reciprocally in
the duration of nocturnal melatonin secretion, which becomes longer in winter and shorter in

summer (Malpaux et al., 2001)