PSYB64H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells, Pineal Gland, Jet Lag
Document Summary
Clock genes in humans appear to be implicated in schizophrenia and depression. The biochemistry of circadian rhythms: scn regulates the release of the hormone melatonin from the pineal gland. People with pineal gland tumors or other medical conditions affecting melatonin report sleep problems. Electroencephalogram recordings of waking and sleep: desynchronous: brain activity associated with independent action of many neurons and alertness synchronous: brain activity associated with neurons firing in unison and deep sleep. Nrem sleep theta waves during wakefulness is usually restricted to cases of brain damage or neurological disorder. Stages 3 and 4 are especially dominant in the first half of the sleep cycle. Rem is the principal stage seen in hours 5 through 8, and. During nrem, however, the frontal parts of the network decouple from the posterior parts, and the correlations between the activity in these two areas become nonsignificant.
