RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Population Encoding by Circadian Clock Neurons Organizes Circadian Behavior
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 1670
OP 1676
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3801-08.2009
VO 29
IS 6
A1 Christopher M. Ciarleglio
A1 Karen L. Gamble
A1 John C. Axley
A1 Benjamin R. Strauss
A1 Jeremiah Y. Cohen
A1 Christopher S. Colwell
A1 Douglas G. McMahon
YR 2009
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/6/1670.abstract
AB Mammalian circadian rhythms are orchestrated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus. The SCN are composed of circadian clock neurons, but the mechanisms by which these populations of neuronal oscillators encode rhythmic behavior are incompletely understood. We have used ex vivo real-time gene expression imaging of the neural correlates of circadian behavior, combined with genetic disruption of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, a key SCN signaling molecule, to examine the neural basis of circadian organization in the SCN. We show that the coherence and timing of clock neuron rhythms are correlated with the coherence and timing of behavioral rhythms within individual mice and that the degree of disruption of SCN neuronal organization correlates with the degree of behavioral disruption within individuals. Our results suggest that the SCN encode circadian phase as a temporal population vector of its constituent neurons; such that as the neuronal population becomes desynchronized, phase information becomes ambiguous.