G. Tosini et al. (eds.), The Retina and Circadian Rhythms, Springer Series in Vision Research 1, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9613-7_2, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract A remarkable piece of tissue, the retina is a true outpost of the brain, peripheral only for its location on the back of the eye. Downstream of the photoreceptors, the specialized cells which transduce light en...

OBJECTIVE Music, being a multifaceted stimulus evolving at multiple timescales, modulates brain function in a manifold way that encompasses not only the distinct stages of auditory perception, but also higher cognitive processes like memory and appraisal. Network theory is apparently a promising approach to describe the functional reorganization of brain oscillatory dynamics during music listen...

Rhythms and vibrations represent the quintessence of life, they are ubiquitous (systemic) in all living systems. Recognising, unfolding these rhythms is paramount medicine, for example, physiology heart, lung, hearing, speech, brain, cellular molecular processes involved biological clocks. The importance commensurability frequencies different has been thoroughly studied music. We define a log-f...

Rhythmic neuronal activity is ubiquitous in the human brain. These rhythms originate from a variety of different network mechanisms, which give rise to a wide-ranging spectrum of oscillation frequencies. In the last few years an increasing number of clinical research studies have explored transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) with weak current as a tool for affecting brain functio...

The human brain contains an intricate network of about 100 billion neurons. Aging of the brain is characterized by a combination of synaptic pruning, loss of cortico-cortical connections, and neuronal apoptosis that provoke an age-dependent decline of cognitive functions. Neural/synaptic redundancy and plastic remodeling of brain networking, also secondary to mental and physical training, promo...

Circadian rhythm disturbances are a common symptom among individuals with mood disorders. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), in the ventral part of the anterior hypothalamus, orchestrates physiological and behavioral circadian rhythms. The SCN consists of self-sustaining oscillators and receives photic and nonphotic cues, which entrain the SCN to the external environment. In turn, through synap...

Neocortical gamma (30-80 Hz) rhythms correlate with attention, movement and perception and are often disrupted in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Gamma primarily occurs during alert brain states characterized by the so-called "desynchronized" EEG. Is this because gamma rhythms are devoid of synchrony? In this review we take a historical approach to answering this question. Richard Caton...

In a discordant anencephalic twin the hypothesis was tested that the fetal brain is necessary for the expression of a diurnal rhythm in fetal heart rate. Fetal heart rate recordings were made over a 24 h period in a discordant anencephalic twin pregnancy and in three normal twin pregnancies. Cosinor analysis was used to assess rhythmicity in fetal heart rate and maternal heart rate or activity....

Experimental and modeling efforts suggest that rhythms in the CA1 region of the hippocampus that are in the beta range (12-29 Hz) have a different dynamical structure than that of gamma (30-70 Hz). We use a simplified model to show that the different rhythms employ different dynamical mechanisms to synchronize, based on different ionic currents. The beta frequency is able to synchronize over lo...

Patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders often exhibit a loss of regulation of their biological rhythms which leads to altered sleep/wake cycle, body temperature rhythm and hormonal rhythms. Whereas these symptoms have long been considered to result from the pathology of the underlying disease, increasing evidence now indicates that the circadian system may be more directly involved i...