U.S. researchers have shed light into what makes a person's internal clock tick.According to the study, in Friday's issue of Science, the body's circadian rhythm, which controls metabolism as well as sleep patterns and other functions of the body, is regulated by subtle variations in the body's internal temperature.
Researchers have long known that body temperature changes through the day on the 24-hour circadian rhythm. Investigators at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas studied mouse cells and discovered that the part of the brain that converts light, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, indirectly sets the body's clock.Once light enters through the eyes and is processed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, messages are sent via neural signals to alter temperature.
These temperature shifts cause the body's tissues and organs to be active or inactive."Small changes in body temperature can send a powerful signal to the clocks in our bodies," said Joseph Takahashi, chair of neuroscience at UT Southwestern in Dallas and senior author of the study, in a release.
It takes only a small change in internal body temperature to synchronize cellular 'clocks' throughout the body."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/10/15/body-temperature-shifts.html#ixzz12TUpzDYk
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