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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Artificial Light At Night Alters Behavior In Laboratory And Wild Animals, Kathryn L. G. Russart, Randy J. Nelson
Artificial Light At Night Alters Behavior In Laboratory And Wild Animals, Kathryn L. G. Russart, Randy J. Nelson
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Life has evolved to internalize and depend upon the daily and seasonal light cycles to synchronize physiology and behavior with environmental conditions. The nightscape has been vastly changed in response to the use of artificial lighting. Wildlife is now often exposed to direct lighting via streetlights or indirect lighting via sky glow at night. Because many activities rely on daily and seasonal light cues, the effects of artificial light at night could be extensive, but remain largely unknown. Laboratory studies suggest exposure to light at night can alter typical timing of daily locomotor activity and shift the timing of foraging/food …
Effects Of Light At Night On Laboratory Animals And Research Outcomes, Kathryn M. Emmer, Kathryn L. G. Russart, William H. Walker Ii, Randy J. Nelson, A. Courtney Devries
Effects Of Light At Night On Laboratory Animals And Research Outcomes, Kathryn M. Emmer, Kathryn L. G. Russart, William H. Walker Ii, Randy J. Nelson, A. Courtney Devries
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Light has substantial influences on the physiology and behavior of most laboratory animals. As such, lighting conditions within animal rooms are potentially significant, and often underappreciated variables within experiments. Disruption of the light/dark cycle, primarily by exposing animals to light at night (LAN), disturbs biological rhythms and has widespread physiological consequences due to mechanisms such as melatonin suppression, sympathetic stimulation, and altered circadian clock gene expression. Thus, attention to the lighting environment of laboratory animals and maintaining consistency of a light/dark cycle is imperative for study reproducibility. Light intensity as well as wavelength, photoperiod, and timing are all important variables. …
Dark Matters: Effects Of Light At Night On Metabolism, Randy J. Nelson, Souhad Chbeir
Dark Matters: Effects Of Light At Night On Metabolism, Randy J. Nelson, Souhad Chbeir
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Life on earth has evolved during the past several billion years under relatively bright days and dark night conditions. The wide-spread adoption of electric lights during the past century exposed animals, both human and non-human, to significant light at night for the first time in their evolutionary history. Endogenous circadian clocks depend on light to entrain to the external daily environment and seasonal rhythms depend on clear nightly melatonin signals to assess time of year. Thus, light at night can derange temporal adaptations. Indeed, disruption of naturally evolved light-dark cycles results in several physiological and behavioural changes with potentially serious …