biological rhythms: circadian rhythms

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what are biological rhythms
distinct patterns of change in body activity that conform to cyclical time periods. biological rhythms can be influences by internal body-clocks or changes in environment
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what is endogenous pacemakers
internal body clock
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what is exogenous zietgebers
external changes to the environment
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what are circadian rhythms
biological rhythms subject to a 24
hour cycle, which regulate a number of body processes such as the sleep/wake cycle and changes in core body temperature
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what is the sleep/wake cycle governed by
exogenous zietgeber: which is DAYLIGHT
also governed by endogenous pacemaker called the superchlasmatic nucleus
-the SCN lies just above the optic chiaasm which provides information from the eyes about light
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Siffre's case study
Siffre is a self-styled caveman, he spent 2 months in a cave in the alps and 6 months in a cave Texas
-in both cases his 'free running' biological rhythm settled down to one that was beyond the usual 24 hours (25hours) but he did constantly to fall aslee
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what happened in Aschoff and Wever's bunker study
participants spent 4 weeks in a ww2 bunker deprived from daylight
all participants expect one displayed a circadian cycle between 24-25 hours
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what does the Siffre's experience and the bunker study suggest
our sleep/wake cycle may be slightly longer than 24 hours
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what did Folkard et all study
they studied a group of 12 people who agreed to live in a dark cave for 3 weeks
when the clock said 11;45 PPS went to be and woke up at 7:45
gradually the expirimenter speeded up the clock w out the pps knowing so an apparent 24 hour day was actually 22
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what do the findings of Folkard et al's study suggest
a strong free running circadian rhythm cannot easily by overridden by exogenous zietgebere
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what is a strength of research into circadian rhythm
helps provided an understanding of the consequences of when they are disrupted
Knusston: found shift workers are 3x more likely to develop a heart disease than people who work more typical work patterns
-research into the sleep/wake cycle may have real
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a limitation of research into the effects of **** workers
they tend to use correlational methods
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how has research into circadian rhythms been used to improve medical treatments
it has to led to the field of chronotheraputics which is how medical treatment can be used in a way that corresponds to a persons biological rhythms
eg aspirin being taken to treat heart attacks is best taken last thing at night
circadian rhythm researc
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what is a limitation of research into circadian rhythms
the studies only use a small sample size meaning the findings are hard to generalise
sleep wake cycles may differ from person to person
Cziesler: individual differences in /sleep wake cycles vary from 13 to 36hours
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what is endogenous pacemakers

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internal body clock

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what is exogenous zietgebers

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what are circadian rhythms

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what is the sleep/wake cycle governed by

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