UCLA

It is well understood that almost all organisms exhibit daily oscillations in behavior and physiology. These circadian rhythms are capable of being entrained to environmental stimuli, such as light. The circadian system is sensitive to a broad spectrum of light, but mice specifically lack long wavelength sensitive photopigments. I therefore hypothesized that blue-enriched lighting would be better at entraining the circadian system of wild-type (WT) mice compared to red-enriched lighting. My results suggest that under stable phase conditions, the spectral composition of light is of little consequence; however, in response to changes in phase, the spectral properties of light do matter.