Citation de JLB21
BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS
ANIMALS FOLLOW CONSISTENT PATTERNS of behaviour when it comes to eating, sleeping, mating, hibernating, and migrating. Bears and squirrels know when to hibernate and when to wake up; deer have clock telling them to mate in the autumn. Women have monthly clocks that control their menstrual cycles, and all humans have high-speed clocks in the cerebral cortex that tick 100 times a second.
Some of these cycles recur every day, but others come round only once a year, so there must be several types of biological clocks running at the same time. Some of these clocks are well understood, but others are not. The best-known cycle is the circadian rhythm, which encourages us to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. “Circadian” comes from the Latin circa meaning about, and diem meaning a day.
ANIMALS FOLLOW CONSISTENT PATTERNS of behaviour when it comes to eating, sleeping, mating, hibernating, and migrating. Bears and squirrels know when to hibernate and when to wake up; deer have clock telling them to mate in the autumn. Women have monthly clocks that control their menstrual cycles, and all humans have high-speed clocks in the cerebral cortex that tick 100 times a second.
Some of these cycles recur every day, but others come round only once a year, so there must be several types of biological clocks running at the same time. Some of these clocks are well understood, but others are not. The best-known cycle is the circadian rhythm, which encourages us to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. “Circadian” comes from the Latin circa meaning about, and diem meaning a day.