Abstract
A revised computational model of circadian phototransduction is presented. The first step was to characterize the spectral sensitivity of the retinal circuit using suppression of the synthesis of melatonin by the pineal gland at night as the outcome measure. From the spectral sensitivity, circadian light was defined. Circadian light, thereby rectifies any spectral power distribution into a single, instantaneous photometric quantity. The second step was to characterize the circuit’s response characteristic to different amounts of circadian light from threshold to saturation. By doing so a more complete instantaneous photometric quantity representing the circadian stimulus was defined in terms of both the spectral sensitivity and the response magnitude characteristic of the circadian phototransduction circuit. To validate the model of the circadian phototransduction circuit, it was necessary to augment the model to account for different durations of the circadian stimulus and distribution of the circadian stimulus across the retina. Two simple modifications to the model accounted for the duration and distribution of continuous light exposure during the early biological night. A companion paper (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2020.615305/full) provides a neurophysiological foundation for the model parameters.
Highlights
Circadian phototransduction is the process that converts optical radiation incident on the retina to neural signals reaching the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
T can modify the half saturation constant in Eq 2 to predict absolute nocturnal melatonin suppression for any continuous light exposure duration from 0.5 to 3 h without any modifications to the CS formulation itself. This being the case, it can be logically inferred that CLA 2.0 and CS accurately characterize the spectral sensitivity and the operating characteristics of the modeled circadian phototransduction circuit in the retina
Following this same logic used to model the duration of light exposure, we explored the possibility that a single parameter, f, representing the spatial distribution of circadian light exposure could be used to augment to CS formulation to predict nocturnal melatonin suppression (Eqs. 2 and 3)
Summary
Circadian phototransduction is the process that converts optical radiation incident on the retina to neural signals reaching the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). T can modify the half saturation constant in Eq 2 to predict absolute nocturnal melatonin suppression for any continuous light exposure duration from 0.5 to 3 h without any modifications to the CS formulation itself This being the case, it can be logically inferred that CLA 2.0 and CS accurately characterize the spectral sensitivity and the operating characteristics of the modeled circadian phototransduction circuit in the retina. Following this same logic used to model the duration of light exposure, we explored the possibility that a single parameter, f, representing the spatial distribution of circadian light exposure could be used to augment to CS formulation to predict nocturnal melatonin suppression (Eqs. 2 and 3). Eq 5 can be used to augment the CS formulation (Eq 2) to predict absolute melatonin suppression for different continuous light exposure durations during the early biological night and different distributions
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