Week 1 (Modules 1 -2)

Question 1

“chronobiology” comes from which Greek words?

Answer 1

"chrono" = time
"bios" = life
"logos' = study

Question 2

What is chronobiology?

Answer 2

The study of biological rhythms from the hours to years range

Question 3

What type of biological rhythm has been the most extensively researched, and why?

Answer 3

Circadian rhythms, because they are the most relevant to humans

Question 4

What is a biological rhythm?

Answer 4

Any biological process, including behaviour, that repeats at regular intervals

Question 5

Which two domains can a rhythm be described in?

Answer 5

time or frequency

Question 6

In the time domain, a rhythm is said to have a _____, which is ______

Answer 6

• period

- the time needed to complete one full cycle

Question 7

The reciprocal of period is _____, which is _____

Answer 7

• frequency

- the number of cycles per unit of time

Question 8

Biological rhythms with a period of less than 24 are called:

Answer 8

ultradian

Question 9

Biological rhythms with a period of 24 are called:

Answer 9

daily rhythms

Question 10

Biological rhythms with a period of more than 24 are called:

Answer 10

infradian

Question 11

What are “circa” rhythms?

Answer 11

Rhythms whose periods resemble a naturally occurring cycle in the environment

Question 12

Circatidal rhythms have a period of about _____ and approximate ______

Answer 12

• 12.5 hours

- tides

Question 13

Circadian rhythms have a period of about _____ and approximate ______

Answer 13

• 24 hours

- the solar day

Question 14

Circalunar rhythms have a period of about _____ and approximate ______

Answer 14

• 29.5 days

- the lunar month

Question 15

Circannual rhythms have a period of about _____ and approximate ______

Answer 15

• 1 year

- the solar year

Question 16

What 2 things are unique about the “circa” rhythms?

Answer 16

• they resemble some type of environmental cycle

- they can persist for some time without the presence of these cycles

Question 17

What are 2 implications of the persistence of rhythms?

Answer 17

• the rhythms must be generated by some internal clock (biological oscillator)
• the rhythms must synchronize with the environment through entrainment

Question 18

What is a time series?

Answer 18

A sequence of data points collected over time

Question 19

What is an acrophase?

Answer 19

The peak of the cosine wave on a graph

Question 20

What is the difference between daily rhythms and circadian rhythms?

Answer 20

Circadian rhythms are caused by a biological clock, while daily rhythms can be performed solely due to light and dark phases; all circadian rhythms are daily rhythms, but not vice versa

Question 21

What does zeitgedachnis mean?

Answer 21

Time memory in German

Question 22

Why would bees need an internal clock that remembers the same time every day?

Answer 22

Flowers open and close around the same time each day due to sunlight – and flowers attract bees

Question 23

What type of organism was brought on the first space science mission?

Answer 23

Neurospora crassa, or bread mold

Question 24

What type of animal did Simpson and Galbraith study?

Answer 24

Macaque monkeys

Question 25

What is a kymograph and who invented it?

Answer 25

A device to measure human blood pressure, invented in the 1840's by Carl Ludwig

Question 26

What did Curt Richter do?

Answer 26

Performed the first study of daily rhythms of rats in the 1920s

Question 27

What is an actogram (or raster plot)?

Answer 27

Placing daily charts of activity beneath each other

Question 28

What revolutionized data acquisition in the 1980s?

Answer 28

The invention of the personal microcomputer

Question 29

What is a free run?

Answer 29

A rhythm that persists in a time-free environment

Question 30

What is a continuous waveform?

Answer 30

The magnitude of each data point is on the vertical axis, and the time of each data point is on the horizontal axis

Question 31

What is a period (tau)?

Answer 31

the duration of a complete cycle

Question 32

What is entrainment?

Answer 32

The process in which a rhythm becomes synchronized with an environmental cycle

Question 33

Zeitgeber

Answer 33

any periodic stimulus that can entrain a circadian rhythm

Question 34

What do alpha and rho represent?

Answer 34

The daily active and rest phases

Question 35

amplitude

Answer 35

the difference between the peak and the trough

Question 36

Zeitgeber time

Answer 36

external time

Question 37

photoperiod

Answer 37

the daily light period

Question 38

scotoperiod

Answer 38

the daily dark period

Question 39

What constitutes the validity of a curve fitting?

Answer 39

How close the data is to the sine wave

Question 40

What is an example of sleep-dependent circadian rhythms in humans?

Answer 40

Blood levels of grown hormones

Question 41

What is an example of sleep-independent circadian rhythms in humans?

Answer 41

Blood levels of melatonin

Question 42

What is temperature compensation

Answer 42

How the body maintains its circadian rhythm despite changes in body temperature, which can speed up or slow down processes

Question 43

What does endogenous mean?

Answer 43

internal to the organism

Question 44

What does innate mean?

Answer 44

genetically determined

Question 45

Circadian rhythms are both ____ and _____

Answer 45

- endogenous | - innate

Question 46

Circadian rhythms were largely ignored by the sciences until ____

Answer 46

the 1970's

Question 47

An internal homeostatic mechanism biases certain behaviours for ____ and some for _____

Answer 47

- night | - day

Question 48

What is homeostasis?

Answer 48

The mechanisms which maintain internal physiological conditions within the range necessary for life

Question 49

What is behavioural ecology?

Answer 49

The study of how animals adapt behaviorally to environmental niches

Question 50

What are chronotypes?

Answer 50

The particular temporal niche that an animal is adapted to

Question 51

What is shiftwork disorder?

Answer 51

The inability to sleep in the day and stay awake at night

Question 52

What is chronotherapeutics?

Answer 52

Finding the right dose of medicine based on the time of day to maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity

Question 53

What is a biological oscillator?

Answer 53

The internal clock that controls biological rhythms