Introduction to Chronobiology

Biological Rhythms Workshop I: introduction to chronobiology.

In this chapter, we present a series of four articles derived from a Introductory Workshop on Biological Rhythms presented at the 72nd Annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology: Clocks and Rhythms. A diverse range of species, from cyanobacteria to humans, evolved endogenous biological clocks that allow for the anticipation of daily variations in light and temperature. The abil...

Chronobiology and mood disorders: background and introduction.

The papers in this special section are the proceedings of a symposium on chronobiology and mood disorders presented at the June 1999 meeting of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These papers review aspects of mood disorders that are linked to biological rhythms with 3 different periodicities: daily, menstrual and annual. They also reflect a growing interes...

Possible contribution of chronobiology to cardiovascular health

The daily variations found in many aspects of physiology are collectively known as circadian rhythm (from "circa" meaning "about" and "dien" meaning "day"). Circadian oscillation in clock gene expression can generate quantitative or functional variations of the molecules directly involved in many physiological functions. This paper reviews the molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock, the tr...

Chronobiology and chronotherapeutics. Applications to cardiovascular medicine.

The concept of homeostasis, ie, constancy of the milieu interne, has dominated the teaching, research, and practice of medicine during the 20th century. According to this theory, biologic functions and processes are maintained in relative constancy over time. The emerging concepts of chronobiology, the scientific discipline of biologic rhythm study, and the findings from research in this field ...

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics