Scientists from the University of Manchester have unveiled that the colour of light has a big impacts on brain clock.The colour of light has play a big role in how animals measure what time of day it is and the physiology and behaviour change according to light's colour.
The Study was published in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology which explains that the mammal's internal clock could be affected by the change in light at dawn and dusk.Light intensity changes with the sun sets and rises, the scientists discovered that light is bluer in the twilight than during the day time.Then the scientists got electrical activity of mice's brain clock, as the mice were shown several visual stimuli.They found that their neurons were more sensitive to changes in colour between blue to yellow than respond to changes in brightness.
The researchers utilized an artificial sky that changes colour and brightness.When the mice were placed in the artificial sky for several days, their body temperatures were high, when it turned dark blue.It the brightness was changed, the mice were more active before dusk, without changing the colour.This experiment shows that the mice's body clock do not have right sync with the day and night cycle.
Dr Timothy Brown from the Faculty of Life Sciences, who led the research said, "this is the first time that we've been able to test the theory that colour affects our body clock in any mammal. It has always been very hard to separate the change in colour to the change in brightness but using new experimental tools and a psychophysics approach we were successful. What's exciting about our research is that the same findings can be applied to humans. So, in theory, colour could be used to manipulate our clock, which could be useful for shift workers or travellers wanting to minimise jet lag."
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