Circadian rhythms of tonic immobility in the rat: Evidence of an endogenous mechanism

Hennig, Charles W.; Dunlap, William P.

doi:10.3758/bf03209236

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…1999). Interestingly, TI has been found to exhibit a circadian rhythm in a variety of species (Hennig and Dunlap 1977; Hill et al . 1994; Stahlbaum et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects

2002

Journal of Sleep Research

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Sleep paralysis (SP) entails a period of paralysis upon waking or falling asleep and is often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations. Two situational conditions for sleep paralysis, body position (supine, prone, and left or right lateral decubitus) and timing (beginning, middle, or end of sleep), were investigated in two studies involving 6730 subjects, including 4699 SP experients. A greater number of individuals reported SP in the supine position than all other positions combined. The supine position was also 3–4 times more common during SP than when normally falling asleep. The supine position during SP was reported to be more prevalent at the middle and end of sleep than at the beginning suggesting that the SP episodes at the later times might arise from brief microarousals during REM, possibly induced by apnea. Reported frequency of SP was also greater among those consistently reporting episodes at the beginning and middle of sleep than among those reporting episodes when waking up at the end of sleep. The effects of position and timing of SP on the nature of hallucinations that accompany SP were also examined. Modest effects were found for SP timing, but not body position, and the reported intensity of hallucinations and fear during SP. Thus, body position and timing of SP episodes appear to affect both the incidence and, to a lesser extent, the quality of the SP experience.

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“…1999). Interestingly, TI has been found to exhibit a circadian rhythm in a variety of species (Hennig and Dunlap 1977; Hill et al . 1994; Stahlbaum et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects

2002

Journal of Sleep Research

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“…This means that the incidence and strength of the reaction fluctuates over a 24-hr cycle. More precisely, tonic immobility is a predominantly nocturnal reaction: Animals are more susceptible to it during the night (Hennig & Dunlap, 1977a, 1977b; Hill, Fleming, & Shrier, 1994; Ternes, 1977). Although this sensitivity varies from species to species and is at times quite weak, it nevertheless signals a clear affinity to other phenomena that are subject to a circadian regulation.…”

Section: Auxiliary Factsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, as mentioned above, exposure to stress (e.g., aggression, temperature changes) increases melatonin production in a number of species (Heinzeller et al, 1988; Lynch & Deng, 1986). Moreover, the duration of tonic immobility correlates positively with the cycle of melatonin release in many species; these species are more susceptible to tonic immobility during the night (Hennig & Dunlap, 1977a, 1977b). Most important, however, melatonin injections produce extremely large increases in the duration of tonic immobility.…”

Section: Control Mechanisms Of Tonic Immobility and Muscular Atoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

The origin of REM sleep: A hypothesis.

Tsoukalas

2012

Dreaming

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This article presents a new theory about the origin of REM sleep. REM is an integral part of the human sleep cycle and the neurological substrate most consistently associated with dreams and dream recall. According to this thesis, REM sleep evolved out of a primordial defensive reflex: tonic immobility. This reflex, sometimes also called death-feigning or animal hypnosis, is usually the last line of defense against an attacking predator. Tonic immobility, common in both vertebrates and invertebrates, has a number of neuroanatomical and behavioral attributes that overlap with those of REM sleep. This overlap is suggestive of an evolutionary kinship. The article presents conceptual arguments and empirical facts in support of this relationship.

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“…One predator‐avoidance behavior is death feigning, also known as tonic immobility (Humphreys & Ruxton, 2018; Sakai, 2021). Death feigning is affected by circadian rhythms and that the frequency of this behavior changes over the course of a day in rats (Hennig & Dunlap, 1997a), domestic fowls (Roovee et al, 1976,1977), toads (Ternes, 1977), lizards (Hennig & Dunlap, 1997b), and beetles (Miyatake, 2001). However, all of these studies observed death feigning at the phenotypic level, and to date, no study has examined the genetic relationship between death‐feigning behavior and circadian rhythms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial selections for death‐feigning behavior in beetles show correlated responses in amplitude of circadian rhythms, but the period of the rhythm does not

et al. 2022

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One of the most important survival strategies of organisms is to avoid predators. Studying one of such strategies, namely, death‐feigning behavior, has recently become more common. The success or failure of this antipredator strategy will be affected by the circadian rhythms of both prey and predator because death feigning sometimes has a diurnal rhythm. However, few studies have analyzed the effects of differences in circadian rhythms on predator‐avoidance behavior at the genetic level. Recently, the relationship between genes relating to circadian rhythm and death‐feigning behavior, an antipredator behavior, has been established at the molecular level. Therefore, in this study, we compared three circadian rhythm‐related traits, the free‐running period of rhythms, amplitude of circadian rhythms, and total activity of strains of three Tribolium species that were artificially selected for the death‐feigning duration: short (S‐strains) and long (L‐strains) durations. As a result, the amplitude of circadian rhythms and total activity were significantly different between S‐ and L‐strains, but there was no difference in the free‐running periods of the rhythm between the strains in T. castaneum, T. confusum, and T. freemani. Although the relationship between death‐feigning behavior and activity has been reported for all three species, a genetic relationship between the duration of death feigning and the amplitude of circadian rhythms has been newly found in the present study. It is important to investigate the relationship between antipredator strategies and circadian rhythms at the molecular level in the future.

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Circadian rhythms of tonic immobility in the rat: Evidence of an endogenous mechanism

Cited by 17 publications

References 29 publications

Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects

Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects

The origin of REM sleep: A hypothesis.

Artificial selections for death‐feigning behavior in beetles show correlated responses in amplitude of circadian rhythms, but the period of the rhythm does not

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