INNER RETINAL CIRCADIAN CLOCKS AND NON-VISUAL PHOTORECEPTORS: NOVEL PLAYERS

MARIO E. GUIDO; EDUARDO GARBARINO-PICO; MARIA ANA CONTIN; DIEGO J. VALDEZ; PAULA S. NIETO; DANIELA M. VERRA; VICTORIA A. ACOSTA RODRIGUEZ; NURIA DE ZAVALÍA; RUTH E. ROSENSTEIN

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2010 vol. 92 p. 484 - 484

font face="Times-New-Roman"> Daily and annual changes in ambient illumination serve as specific stimuli that associate light with time and regulate the physiology of the organism through the eye. The eye acts as a dual sense organ linking light and vision, and detecting light that provides specific stimuli for nonclassical photoreceptors located in the inner retina. These photoreceptors convey information to the master circadian pacemaker, the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Responsible for sensing the light that regulates several non-visual functions (i.e. behavior, pupil reflex, sleep, and pineal melatonin production), the retina plays a key role in the temporal symphony orchestra playing the musical score of life: it is intrinsically rhythmic in its physiological and metabolic activities.