Citation

Allen AE. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 2019; 30: 73-79.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.06.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Light has a profound influence on human physiology and behaviour, most notably permitting visual perception. However, light information serves a parallel set of functions in biology that are essential for our health and wellbeing, including the synchronisation of our circadian clock to the solar day. The circadian clock drives endogenous daily rhythms across human physiology and behaviour. However, when the circadian clock is not appropriately aligned with external time, disturbances in sleep/wake behaviours, alertness, mood and performance arise. Here, the important question of how blindness -- a loss of visual perception -- impacts the circadian clock's synchronisation with the solar day is discussed. This review will explore how and why vision loss can cause significant disruptions in behaviour and physiology that go beyond the loss of conscious visual perception, and why blindness is not as closely linked with deficits in photoentrainment as we might expect.

Language: en