Event Abstract Back to Event Altering the circadian behaviour: What can be suggested about its neurological basis? Trinitat Cambras1* 1 University of Bercelona, Faculty of Farmacia, Spain Although circadian behaviour is mainly studied in terms of free-running and entrained rhythms, there are a lot of different circumstances under which the animals show atypical and complex rhythmic patterns in their motor activity behaviour. The analysis of these behavioural patterns provides insights to hypothesize about the functioning and the structure of the circadian system. Here, we provide examples of some of the possible abnormal rhythmic patterns in experimental animals, and some possible explanations in terms of brain oscillators. The first example is the dissociated pattern that appears when animals are maintained under light-dark cycles of 22 hours period, where two circadian components with different period appear in the motor activity pattern. The analysis of this behaviour suggested that the circadian system had to be driven by two pacemakers. This was later confirmed by the finding that the two parts of the suprachiasmatic nuclei were functionally dissociated under these circumstances, being each part able to drive different physiological variables in the organism. However, dissociation is not only an on-off phenomenon. Different degrees of the desynchronized behaviour, attending to the manifestation of each component, can be obtained depending on external circumstances such as light intensity, photoperiod or access to a running wheel. Not all the animal species show the same rhythmic patterns under the same environmental conditions, indicating possible differences in their neurological substrates. Moreover, exposure to bright light or short light-dark cycles, also provide atypical patterns in the rhythmic behaviour of animals, which indicate the multioscillatory properties of the circadian pacemaker. The variety and complexity in the rhythmic behaviour may indicate flexibility towards the different circumstances that account in the outside world. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Symposia lectures Citation: Cambras T (2009). Altering the circadian behaviour: What can be suggested about its neurological basis?. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.015 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 04 Jun 2009; Published Online: 04 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Trinitat Cambras, University of Bercelona, Faculty of Farmacia, Barcelona, Spain, cambras@ub.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Trinitat Cambras Google Trinitat Cambras Google Scholar Trinitat Cambras PubMed Trinitat Cambras Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.