The impact of the circadian system on sleep/wake regulation and cognitive performance
FNRS Research Fellow Christina Schmidt publishes a review in the Annual Review of Psychology, a prestigious journal in the field of psychology. The review is co-authored with her collaborator, Christian Cajochen, Director of the Center for Chronobiology, UPK at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
It deals with circadian rhythms, one of the most fundamental processes in living organisms, and its impact on human cognitive and brain functioning. The article also discusses a series of consequences of an out-of-sync rhythm, particularly in relation to mental and neurological disorders.
Circadian rhythms are inherent to living organisms from single cells to humans and operate on a genetically determined cycle of approximately 24 hours. These endogenous rhythms are aligned with the external light/dark cycle of the Earth's rotation and offer the advantage of anticipating environmental changes. Circadian rhythms act directly on human cognition and indirectly through their fundamental influence on sleep/wake cycles. The strength of the circadian regulation of performance depends on the accumulated sleep debt and the cognitive domain, and it has been suggested to involve the activation of ascending arousal systems and their interaction with attention and other cognitive processes. In addition, attention-related cortical responses show extensive circadian rhythms, the phases of which vary across brain regions. This review discusses the impact of the circadian system on sleep/wake regulation and cognitive performance. It further addresses the health implications of circadian disruption, particularly in relation to mental and neurological disorders.
Reference
The Circadian Brain and Cognition
Christian Cajochen, Christina Schmidt
2024 Oct 23. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-022824-043825. Online ahead of print.
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Note
The illustration comes from artist Liliane Lijn's “Lighten Up! on Biology and Time” exhibition in Lausanne in 2023. The artist used brain videos based on data acquired by the lab in the past, showing the impact of the 24-hour and day-night cycles on human brain function.
