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Ontogenesis of Human Ultradian Rhythms

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Ultradian Rhythms in Life Processes

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Abstract

Ultradian cycles constitute a broad spectrum in the hour, minute, second and millisecond domain (Hildebrandt 1986). This chapter is restricted to those in the hour and minute domain and, with few exceptions, the data reviewed and presented were derived from human infants. There are a number of issues which have been a part of the debate about rhythms in ontogeny. The first issue is unique to the immature organism and deals with functional equivalence. Quite simply, at what point when observing cyclic behaviours in utero reminiscent of behaviours in the newborn is one justified in asserting that these behaviours are functionally equivalent? It leads to such questions as: “is the foetus awake?” “when can the basic rest-activity cycle (BRAC) be first identified?” and “what is the true birthday of the circadian rhythm?” These questions currently have no definitive answers, although attempts have been made to specify the criteria by which preliminary conclusions are reached (Nijhuis et al. 1982).

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Authors
  1. Toke Hoppenbrouwers
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pure and Applied Biology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, PO Box 915, Cardiff, CF1 3TL, Wales

    David Lloyd BSc, PhD, DSc (Professor of Microbiology) (Professor of Microbiology)

  2. C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, 23708 Harbor Vista Drive, Malibu, CA, 90265, USA

    Ernest L. Rossi PhD (Clinical Psychologist) (Clinical Psychologist)

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Hoppenbrouwers, T. (1992). Ontogenesis of Human Ultradian Rhythms. In: Lloyd, D., Rossi, E.L. (eds) Ultradian Rhythms in Life Processes. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1969-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1969-2_9

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