期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1979
卷号：76
期号：11
页码：5962-5966
DOI：10.1073/pnas.76.11.5962
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The experimental work described tested the prosposition that the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus is an autonomous circadian pacemaker. Simultaneous recording from two extracellular electrodes indicated neural (multiple unit) activity at two sites in the brain, one of which is in or near the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the other in one of many other brain locations. Both sites in intact rats displayed clear circadian rhythmicity of spontaneous neural activity. In experimental animals, a Halasz knife was used to create an island of hypothalamic tissue that contained the suprachiasmatic nuclei. In such animals that were also blinded by bilateral ocular enucleation, circadian rhythmicity was lost at all brain locations recorded outside the island, but it persisted within the island that contained the suprachiasmatic nuclei. The rhythmicity of the island is thus not dependent on afferent inputs from elsewhere in the brain.
