Saturday, January, 11,2025

Latest News

No INDIA bloc party has officially extended official support to AAP, says Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav

Rajnath Singh calls for enhanced cohesiveness of global community in view of current security environment

Startup funding in India rises to USD 115 bn from USD 8 bn in 2016: DPIIT

India will have startups in every district by 2025: DPIIT

Amit Shah to chair regional conference on 'Drug Trafficking and National Security' in Delhi tomorrow

Indian diaspora have left an indelible mark on global society: EAM Jaishankar

Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma along with kids visit spiritual guru Premanand Maharaj in Vrindavan

Designation makes no difference to me, I am the same person who once used to sit on floor: PM Modi

Never lived in comfort zone: PM Modi

Class 3 girl dies of suspected cardiac arrest in school; police launch probe

PM Modi outlines vision for 'Viksit Bharat', focuses on 100% delivery of schemes

Lawrence Powell aka 'Kamala' wife of late Steve Jobs to visit Mahakumbh-Swami Kailashnand Ji Maharaj

PM Narendra Modi underlines his vision of maximum governance, minimum government

Punjab govt rejects centre's draft policy on agricultural marketing

90 acres of poppy plantation destroyed in Ukhrul: Manipur CM N Biren Singh

"One should enter politics not with ambition but with a mission": PM Modi

Researchers develop model to understand durability of body clock

20 Aug-2023 20:11 PM

By: FirstIndia

Ontario: Mathematical models are being used by researchers to better understand how disruptions to the body's circadian rhythms, such as daylight savings time, working night shifts, jet lag, or even late-night phone scrolling, affect the body.

academics from the Universities of Waterloo and Oxford have developed a novel model to help academics better understand the durability of the master clock in the brain, which is a group of neurons in the brain that regulates the body's other internal rhythms. Additionally, they wish to provide methods for boosting resilience in those whose circadian rhythms are compromised or weak.

Chronic circadian rhythm disturbances have been linked to diabetes, cognitive loss, and a wide range of other diseases.

“Current society is experiencing a rapid increase in demand for work outside of traditional daylight hours,” said Stéphanie Abo, a PhD student in applied mathematics and the study’s lead author, adding, “This greatly disrupts how we are exposed to light, as well as other habits such as eating and sleeping patterns.”
Humans’ circadian rhythms, or internal clocks, are the roughly 24-hour cycles many body systems follow, usually alternating between wakefulness and rest. Scientists are still working to understand the cluster of neurons known as the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) or master clock.

Using mathematical modelling techniques and differential equations, the team of applied mathematics researchers modelled the SCN as a macroscopic, or big-picture, system comprised of a seemingly infinite number of neurons. They were especially interested in understanding the system’s couplings – the connections between neurons in the SCN that allow it to achieve a shared rhythm.

Frequent and sustained disturbances to the body’s circadian rhythms eliminated the shared rhythm, implying a weakening of the signals transmitted between SCN neurons.
Abo said they were surprised to find that “a small enough disruption can actually make the connections between neurons stronger.”
“Mathematical models allow you to manipulate body systems with specificity that cannot be easily or ethically achieved in the body or a petri dish,” Abo said, adding, “This allows us to do research and develop good hypotheses at a lower cost.” (ANI)

Tags