Deaths due to hardening of the arteries peak in the month of January. A normal man will breathe mainly through one nostril for three hours, then the other for three hours. Worms and snails tend to move in given compass directions at certain times of the day, month and year. People estimate time as passing faster when their body temperatures are higher. There are more suicides in May than-in any other month. The metabolism of crabs corresponds to daily fluctuations in cosmic radiation. Normal men go through emotional cycles suggestive of the menstrual cycle in women. The eyes of crayfish turn light every 12 hours, even in constant darkness. Cancer cells proliferate in a tempo that differs from that of the rest of the body.
These are just a few of the tremendously interesting and scientifically significant facts discovered in one of the newest and most fruitful fields of biological study, that of rhythms affecting organisms. The book now in your hands, published in 1970, could not even have been written ten years ago; yet it encompasses the results of well over 650 scientific investigations, almost all within the last decade.
The results show that man, along with the rest of the animal and plant worlds, indeed feels, grows, acts and reacts in time to various rhythms, the most common being the 24-hour solar day (but the activity of crabs is in time to the lunar day, 24.8 hours). Hundreds of experiments and observations are cited in this book, a survey of everything we know about biological rhythms as of 1970. The effects of isolation from day-night patterns, of illnesses, psychoses and drugs; extensive investigations of sleep and dreaming; rhythms underlying our sensory perceptions, eating, formation and repair of tissues, production of hormones and other bodily chemicals, urination, work performance, emotion, memory and learning; susceptibility to illness; seasonal variations; pain tolerance; effects of light and dark and of jet travel; working schedules and cave studies; effects of electric fields, magnetism and even sun spots—all and more are covered in this absorbing and scientifically precise treatment.
Prepared for the National Institute of Mental Health, this survey is certain to be of engrossing interest to anyone in the least concerned with psychology, physiology, research medicine, zoology or biochemistry—whether scientist or layman. No technical background is necessary; the material is presented in ordinary English and easily read style.
Author(s): Gay Gaer Luce
Publisher: Dover Publications
Year: 1971
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor + ocrmypdf
Pages: 196
City: New York
Tags: biological rhythms
Biological Rhythms in Human and Animal Physiology
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction: Rhythms, Their Scope and Influence
Circadian Rhythms
Relevance to Research
Monthly, Seasonal, Annual Cycles
Time Sense
Subjective Time Sense
Time Estimation
A Rhythm in Time Estimation
Altered Mental States and Drugs
Cultural Concepts of Time
Ancient Medicine
Mythology
Normal Emotional Rhythms
Basic Terms: Frequency, Phase, Period, and Amplitude
The Heart and Lungs: Integration of Rhythms
The Cosmic Receiver
Sunspots and Behavior
Time Structure
Sleep and Dreaming
The Nightly Rhythm
REM Sleep and Stage IV
REM and Learning
Hormonal Accompaniments of REM and/or Stage IV
Good and Poor Sleep
Insomnia and Depression
Phase Shift and Depression
Narcolepsy
Space
Isolation
The Presumed Functions of REM Sleep
The Language of Rhythms
A Basic Ultradian Rhythm?
Eating—A Sign of an Ultradian Drive Rhythm?
Other Signs of Ultradian Rhythms
A Binary Autocorrelation Method for Analyzing Sleep Rhythms
Sleep Reversal: Hormonal Rhythms
Rhythms in Brain Biochemistry
The Development of Rhythms: Youth and Age
Newborn Infants and Sleep
Fetal Activity Rhythms
Mother and Child Compatibility
Development of Circadian Rhythms in Sleep and Physiology
The Development of Physiological Rhythms in Infants
A Timetable
Hormones
Circadian Rhythms: Nature or Nurture?
Age and Sleep Rhythms
Do Circadian Rhythms Break Down in Old Age?
Dissociation of Rhythms and Age
Within the Compass of a Day
Body Temperature
The Urinary Electrolytes
Creatinine: A Physiological Constant?
The Urinary EEG
Blood
The Liver
Energy and ATP
Nutrition
The Timing of Protein Utilization
Sleep Reversal
Food and Stress
Circadian Rhythms in Taste, Smell, and Hearing
Visual and Auditory Perception
Sensory Detection Versus Integration
Circadian Rhythms in Sensory Keenness
EEG Rhythms
Performance and Fitness
Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency
Individuality in Tempo and Rhythm
Circadian Rhythms in Cell Mitosis and Illness
Arterial Disease
Rhythms of Cell Division
Rhythms of Mitosis and Metabolism in the Liver
The Pancreas and Insulin Rhythms
Seasonal Variations
Circadian Rhythms in Glucose Tolerance
Cancer
Hours of Changing Susceptibility
Susceptibility to Bacteria and Infection
Audiogenic Seizures and Epilsepsy
Anesthetics, Alcohol, and Stimulants
Rhythms in Pain Tolerance
Quabain: Kidney and Liver Enzymes
Self-Regulation of Adrenal Hormones
Allergy
Histamine Skin Reaction
Salicylate
Phase Shifts and Drug Response
Phase Shifts Caused by Drugs
Unexpected Temporal Effects
Mathematical Instruments
Biological Clocks inthe Unicom
Mathematical Models
Wave Forms and Harmonics
Point of Origin: Determining Phase Relations
Spectral Analysis
Polar Plots
Confidence Arcs and Error Ellipses
Physiological Clock Hands for Emotion and Memory
Depression
Behavioral Chromatography
Cortisol Rhythms and Sleep Reversal
Clock Hands Behind the Adrenal Rhythm
A Critical Time for Brain Stimulation of the Pituitary Adrenal Rhythm?
Circadian Rhythms in Brain Amines
Memory and Periodicity
Critical Periods in Fear Memory
Emotional Conditioning and Time of Day
Conditioned “Fear” Responses at 8 a.m.
Learning at Random Hours
Emotional Learning and the Adrenal Rhythm
The Clock, Stress, and Somatic Symptoms
‘“Free-Running” and Emotional Learning
Periodic Illness and Stress Induced Illness
Menstrual Syndrome
Emotional Cyclesin Normal Man
Periodic Hypertension
Mental Illnesses
Periodic Catatonia
Correlations of Behavior and Physiology
Manic Depression
A Shock-Phase Theory of Periodic Illness
Behavioral Stress and Illness
Stress and Abnormal Rhythms
The Effect of Returning the “Security” Symbol
Drug Treatment
The Impact of Light
Photoperiodism
Light and Adrenal Hormonesin Man
Seasons for Mating
The Pineal Gland
Melatonin
Light and Darkness: Pineal Size and Melatonin Production
How Light Could Reach the Pineal in Mammals
Photoperiodism in Man?
A Circadian Rhythm of Testosterone
Controlling Estrus by Light
Controlling Ovulation by Light
Work-Rest Schedules and Isolation
Shift Work
Soviet Studies
Individual Differences
Flight Studies
Cave Studies
Free-Running
Light, Exercise, and Social Activity
Internal Synchronization in Isolation and After
Electric Field Changes
Summary
Circadian Rhythms
Diagnosis
Drugs
Stress Psychosomatic and Emotional Disease
Subjective Time
References
