Abstract
With some minor exceptions “all of the energy for life on earth is contained within a narrow spectral range of electromagnetic radiation received from the sun” (Seliger and McElroy 1965). The total amount of incident electromagnetic radiation exhibits considerable daily and seasonal variations. Light, by virtue of its daily and seasonal variations acts as a Zeitgeber (cf. Aschoff 1965) synchronizing circadian and circannual rhythms by which living organisms adjust their autonomic functions to periodic changes in their environment (Scharrer 1964). A response to light has been observed in large numbers of different biological systems (for review, see Wurtman 1975). However, in vertebrates, entrainment of endogenous rhythms by natural or artificial photoperiods is exclusively mediated via photoreceptive systems located in a circumscribed region of the central nervous system, the diencephalon (for review, see Rusak and Zucker 1979). In the following brief survey attention will be focussed predominantly on extraretinal photosensory systems.
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Note added in proof
Hartwig HG (1982) Retinale und extraretinale Photorezeptoren: Meßfühler und Integratoren der ‚biologischen Uhr’. Verh. Anat. Ges., 77. Vers. (Hannover) (im Druck)
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Hartwig, HG. (1982). Comparative Aspects of Retinal and Extraretinal Photosensory Input Channels Entraining Endogenous Rhythms. In: Aschoff, J., Daan, S., Groos, G.A. (eds) Vertebrate Circadian Systems. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68651-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68651-1_3
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