Daily electrical activity in the master circadian clock of a diurnal mammal

A phosphate transporter in VIPergic neurons of the suprachiasmatic nucleus gates locomotor activity during the light/dark transition in mice

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) encodes time of day through changes in daily firing; however, the molecular mechanisms by which the SCN times behavior are not fully understood. To identify factors that could encode day/night differences in activity, we combine patch-clamp recordings and single-cell sequencing of individual SCN neurons in mice. We identify PiT2, a phosphate transporter, as being upregulated in a population of Vip+Nms+ SCN neurons at night. Although nocturnal and typically showing a peak of activity at lights off, mice lacking PiT2 (PiT2-/-) do not reach the activity level seen in wild-type mice during the light/dark transition. PiT2 loss leads to increased SCN neuronal firing and broad changes in SCN protein phosphorylation. PiT2-/- mice display a deficit in seasonal entrainment when moving from a simulated short summer to longer winter nights. This suggests that PiT2 is responsible for timing activity and is a driver of SCN plasticity allowing seasonal entrainment.

Diurnal Variation of Brain Activity in the Human Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is the central clock for circadian rhythms. Animal studies have revealed daily rhythms in the neuronal activity in the SCN. However, the circadian activity of the human SCN has remained elusive. In this study, to reveal the diurnal variation of the SCN activity in humans, we localized the SCN by employing an areal boundary mapping technique to resting-state functional images and investigated the SCN activity using perfusion imaging. In the first experiment (n = 27, including both sexes), we scanned each participant four times a day, every 6 h. Higher activity was observed at noon, while lower activity was recorded in the early morning. In the second experiment (n = 20, including both sexes), the SCN activity was measured every 30 min for 6 h from midnight to dawn. The results showed that the SCN activity gradually decreased and was not associated with the electroencephalography. Furthermore, the SCN activity was compatible with the rodent SCN activity after switching off the lights. These results suggest that the diurnal variation of the human SCN follows the zeitgeber cycles of nocturnal and diurnal mammals and is modulated by physical lights rather than the local time.

The genomic basis of temporal niche evolution in a diurnal rodent

Patterns of diel activity-how animals allocate their activity throughout the 24-h daily cycle-play key roles in shaping the internal physiology of an animal and its relationship with the external environment.1,2,3,4,5 Although shifts in diel activity patterns have occurred numerous times over the course of vertebrate evolution,6 the genomic correlates of such transitions remain unknown. Here, we use the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), a species that transitioned from the ancestrally nocturnal diel niche of its close relatives to a diurnal one,7,8,9,10,11 to define patterns of naturally occurring molecular variation in diel niche traits. First, to facilitate genomic analyses, we generate a chromosome-level genome assembly of the striped mouse. Next, using transcriptomics, we show that the switch to daytime activity in this species is associated with a realignment of daily rhythms in peripheral tissues with respect to the light:dark cycle and the central circadian clock. To uncover selection pressures associated with this temporal niche shift, we perform comparative genomic analyses with closely related rodent species and find evidence of relaxation of purifying selection on striped mouse genes in the rod phototransduction pathway. In agreement with this, electroretinogram measurements demonstrate that striped mice have functional differences in dim-light visual responses compared with nocturnal rodents. Taken together, our results show that striped mice have undergone a drastic change in circadian organization and provide evidence that the visual system has been a major target of selection as this species transitioned to a novel temporal niche.

Neural cell state shifts and fate loss in ageing and age-related diseases

Most age-related neurodegenerative diseases remain incurable owing to an incomplete understanding of the disease mechanisms. Several environmental and genetic factors contribute to disease onset, with human biological ageing being the primary risk factor. In response to acute cellular damage and external stimuli, somatic cells undergo state shifts characterized by temporal changes in their structure and function that increase their resilience, repair cellular damage, and lead to their mobilization to counteract the pathology. This basic cell biological principle also applies to human brain cells, including mature neurons that upregulate developmental features such as cell cycle markers or glycolytic reprogramming in response to stress. Although such temporary state shifts are required to sustain the function and resilience of the young human brain, excessive state shifts in the aged brain might result in terminal fate loss of neurons and glia, characterized by a permanent change in cell identity. Here, we offer a new perspective on the roles of cell states in sustaining health and counteracting disease, and we examine how cellular ageing might set the stage for pathological fate loss and neurodegeneration. A better understanding of neuronal state and fate shifts might provide the means for a controlled manipulation of cell fate to promote brain resilience and repair.

Circadian desynchronization disrupts physiological rhythms of prefrontal cortex pyramidal neurons in mice

Disruption of circadian rhythms, such as shift work and jet lag, are associated with negative physiological and behavioral outcomes, including changes in affective state, learning and memory, and cognitive function. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is heavily involved in all of these processes. Many PFC-associated behaviors are time-of-day dependent, and disruption of daily rhythms negatively impacts these behavioral outputs. Yet how disruption of daily rhythms impacts the fundamental function of PFC neurons, and the mechanism(s) by which this occurs, remains unknown. Using a mouse model, we demonstrate that the activity and action potential dynamics of prelimbic PFC neurons are regulated by time-of-day in a sex specific manner. Further, we show that postsynaptic K⁺ channels play a central role in physiological rhythms, suggesting an intrinsic gating mechanism mediating physiological activity. Finally, we demonstrate that environmental circadian desynchronization alters the intrinsic functioning of these neurons independent of time-of-day. These key discoveries demonstrate that daily rhythms contribute to the mechanisms underlying the essential physiology of PFC circuits and provide potential mechanisms by which circadian disruption may impact the fundamental properties of neurons.

Circadian rhythms and glial cells of the central nervous system

Glial cells are the most abundant cells in the central nervous system and play crucial roles in neural development, homeostasis, immunity, and conductivity. Over the past few decades, glial cell activity in mammals has been linked to circadian rhythms, the 24-h chronobiological clocks that regulate many physiological processes. Indeed, glial cells rhythmically express clock genes that cell-autonomously regulate glial function. In addition, recent findings in rodents have revealed that disruption of the glial molecular clock could impact the entire organism. In this review, we discuss the impact of circadian rhythms on the function of the three major glial cell types - astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes - across different locations within the central nervous system. We also review recent evidence uncovering the impact of glial cells on the body's circadian rhythm. Together, this sheds new light on the involvement of glial clock machinery in various diseases.

Adaptive unscented Kalman filter for neuronal state and parameter estimation

Data assimilation techniques for state and parameter estimation are frequently applied in the context of computational neuroscience. In this work, we show how an adaptive variant of the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) performs on the tracking of a conductance-based neuron model. Unlike standard recursive filter implementations, the robust adaptive unscented Kalman filter (RAUKF) jointly estimates the states and parameters of the neuronal model while adjusting noise covariance matrices online based on innovation and residual information. We benchmark the adaptive filter's performance against existing nonlinear Kalman filters and explore the sensitivity of the filter parameters to the system being modelled. To evaluate the robustness of the proposed solution, we simulate practical settings that challenge tracking performance, such as a model mismatch and measurement faults. Compared to standard variants of the Kalman filter the adaptive variant implemented here is more accurate and robust to faults.

Sex Inclusion in Transcriptome Studies of Daily Rhythms

Biomedical research on mammals has traditionally neglected females, raising the concern that some scientific findings may generalize poorly to half the population. Although this lack of sex inclusion has been broadly documented, its extent within circadian genomics remains undescribed. To address this gap, we examined sex inclusion practices in a comprehensive collection of publicly available transcriptome studies on daily rhythms. Among 148 studies having samples from mammals in vivo, we found strong underrepresentation of females across organisms and tissues. Overall, only 23 of 123 studies in mice, 0 of 10 studies in rats, and 9 of 15 studies in humans included samples from females. In addition, studies having samples from both sexes tended to have more samples from males than from females. These trends appear to have changed little over time, including since 2016, when the US National Institutes of Health began requiring investigators to consider sex as a biological variable. Our findings highlight an opportunity to dramatically improve representation of females in circadian research and to explore sex differences in daily rhythms at the genome level.

Action potential firing rhythms in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the diurnal grass rat, Arvicanthis niloticus

In mammals, daily physiological activities are regulated by a central circadian pacemaker located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Recently, an increasing number of studies have used diurnal grass rats to analyze neuronal mechanisms regulating diurnal behavior. However, spontaneous action potential firing rhythms in SCN neurons have not been demonstrated clearly in diurnal grass rats. Therefore, the present study examined extracellular single-unit recordings from SCN neurons in acute hypothalamic slices of Arvicanthis niloticus (Nile grass rats). The results of this study found that circadian firing rhythms with the highest frequency occurred at dusk (6.4 Hz at zeitgeber time (ZT)10-12), while the secondary peak occurred at dawn (5.6 Hz at ZT0-2), and the lowest frequency took place in the middle of the night (3.6 Hz at ZT14-16). Locomotor activity recordings from a separate group of animals demonstrated that the Nile grass rats of the laboratory colony used in this study displayed diurnal behaviors that coincided with large crepuscular peaks under 12:12 h light-dark cycles and bimodal rhythms under constant dim red light. Thus, a positive correlation between SCN firing frequencies and locomotor activity levels was observed in the Nile grass rats. Previously, behavioral coupling of action potential firings in SCN neurons has been suggested by in vivo recordings while the present study demonstrates that the sustenance of bimodal firing rhythms in grass rat SCN neurons can last at least one day in vitro.

Inhibitory responses to retinohypothalamic tract stimulation in the circadian clock of the diurnal rodent Rhabdomys pumilio

In both diurnal and nocturnal mammals, the timing of activity is regulated by the central circadian clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN is synchronized to the external light cycle via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). To investigate potential differences in light processing between nocturnal mice and the diurnal rodent Rhabdomys pumilio, we mimicked retinal input by stimulation of the RHT ex vivo. Using Ca²⁺ imaging, we observed excitations as well as inhibitions of SCN neurons in response to electrical RHT stimulation. In mice, the vast majority of responses were excitatory (85%), whereas in Rhabdomys, the proportion of excitatory and inhibitory responses was similar (51% excitatory, 49% inhibitory). Glutamate blockers AP5 and CNQX blocked the excitatory responses to RHT stimulation but did not abolish the inhibitory responses in mice or Rhabdomys, indicating that the inhibitions were monosynaptically transmitted via the RHT. Simultaneous application of glutamate blockers with the GABA_A antagonist gabazine blocked all inhibitory responses in mice, but not in Rhabdomys. Collectively, our results indicate that in Rhabdomys, considerably more inhibitory responses to light are present and that these responses are driven directly by the RHT. We propose that this increased proportion of inhibitory input could reflect a difference in the entrainment mechanism employed by diurnal rodents.

Diurnal shift of mouse activity by the deficiency of an aging-related gene Lmna

Nuclear lamina is a fundamental structure of the cell nucleus and regulates a wide range of molecular pathways. Defects of components of the nuclear lamina cause aging-like physiological disorders, called laminopathy. Generally, aging and diseases are often associated with perturbation of various time-of-day-dependent regulations, but it remains still elusive whether laminopathy induces any changes of the circadian clock and physiological rhythms. Here we demonstrated that deficiency of Lmna gene in mice caused an obvious shift of locomotor activities to the daytime. The abnormal activity profile was accompanied by a remarkable change in phase-angle between the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and lung peripheral clocks, leaving the phase of the SCN clock unaffected by the mutation. These observations suggest that Lmna deficiency causes a change of the habitat from nocturnal to diurnal behaviors. On the other hand, molecular oscillation and its phase resetting mechanism were intact in both the Lmna-deficient cells and progeria-mimicking cells. Intriguingly, high-fat diet feeding extended the short lifespan and ameliorated the abnormalities of the behaviors and the phase of the peripheral clock in the Lmna-deficient mice. The present study supports the important contribution of the energy conditions to a shift between the diurnal and nocturnal activities.

How neurons adjust to diurnality

Being active during the day requires a slow-closing ion channel that dampens the activity of neurons in a specific area of the brain.