Chronomics, neuroendocrine feedsidewards and the recording and consulting of nowcasts--forecasts of geomagnetics

Infradian Biorhythm of Thyroid Hormone Concentrations in Mammals and Birds

Studies of the dynamics of thyroid hormone concentrations in the blood revealed a 3-day rhythm that significantly manifested in male Wistar rats and Chinchilla rabbits during intensive growth and in common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) during moult. Synphasic 3-day biorhythms of thyroid hormonal activities were found in these animals, which attested to an external synchronizer of this biorhythm common for mammals and birds. The maximum level of thyroid hormones coincided with the extrema of daily fluctuations of the Earth rotation velocity, as a result of which this external factor or another factor closely related to it seemed to be involved in synchronization of the 3-day infradian biorhythm of thyroid hormones in mammals and birds.

Cosinor-based rhythmometry

A brief overview is provided of cosinor-based techniques for the analysis of time series in chronobiology. Conceived as a regression problem, the method is applicable to non-equidistant data, a major advantage. Another dividend is the feasibility of deriving confidence intervals for parameters of rhythmic components of known periods, readily drawn from the least squares procedure, stressing the importance of prior (external) information. Originally developed for the analysis of short and sparse data series, the extended cosinor has been further developed for the analysis of long time series, focusing both on rhythm detection and parameter estimation. Attention is given to the assumptions underlying the use of the cosinor and ways to determine whether they are satisfied. In particular, ways of dealing with non-stationary data are presented. Examples illustrate the use of the different cosinor-based methods, extending their application from the study of circadian rhythms to the mapping of broad time structures (chronomes).

An interaction of a NR3C1 polymorphism and antenatal solar activity impacts both hippocampus volume and neuroticism in adulthood

The investigation of the interaction of genes and environment in the context of mental health and personality yields important new insights for a better understanding of human nature. Both antenatal and postnatal environmental factors have been considered as potential modulators of genetic activity. Antenatally, especially smoking or alcohol drinking habits of the mother dramatically influence the health of the child during pregnancy and even later on in life. In the present study we would like to introduce a more "distant" factor that is not under the control of the becoming mother but that nevertheless plays a potential role for the health of the unborn child later on in adulthood. Here, we retrospectively investigate the influence of solar activity (while the child is still in the uterus of the becoming mother) on brain structure (with a focus on hippocampus and amygdala volume) and personality in adulthood. We observe an interaction of a genetic variant (rs41423247) of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and solar activity in the first trimester after conception on both hippocampal volume and the personality trait neuroticism in adulthood in N = 254 participants. The NR3C1 gene is the focus of interest, because of its influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and negative emotionality. Carriers of the CC variant of rs41423247 grown in the womb under the influence of high sun radiation (high solar activity) show both the highest hippocampal volume in the left hemisphere and lowest neuroticism scores. The present findings should encourage researchers in psychology and psychiatry to include also environmental influences such as solar activity besides genetics to better understand the etiogenesis of psychiatric disorders.

Are stress responses to geomagnetic storms mediated by the cryptochrome compass system?

A controversial body of literature demonstrates associations of geomagnetic storms (GMS) with numerous cardiovascular, psychiatric and behavioural outcomes. Various melatonin hypotheses of GMS have suggested that temporal variation in the geomagnetic field (GMF) may be acting as an additional zeitgeber (a temporal synchronizer) for circadian rhythms, with GMS somehow interfering with the hypothesized system. The cryptochrome genes are known primarily as key components of the circadian pacemaker, ultimately involved in controlling the expression of the hormone melatonin. Cryptochrome is identified as a clear candidate for mediating the effect of GMS on humans, demonstrating the prior existence of several crucial pieces of evidence. A distinct scientific literature demonstrates the widespread use of geomagnetic information for navigation across a range of taxa. One mechanism of magnetoreception is thought to involve a light-dependent retinal molecular system mediated by cryptochrome, acting in a distinct functionality to its established role as a circadian oscillator. There is evidence suggesting that such a magnetosense--or at least the vestiges of it--may exist in humans. This paper argues that cryptochrome is not acting as secondary geomagnetic zeitgeber to influence melatonin synthesis. Instead, it is hypothesized that the cryptochrome compass system is mediating stress responses more broadly across the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (including alterations to circadian behaviour) in response to changes in the GMF. Two conceptual models are outlined for the existence of such responses--the first as a generalized migrational/dispersal strategy, the second as a stress response to unexpected signals to the magnetosense. It is therefore proposed that GMS lead to disorientation of hormonal systems in animals and humans, thus explaining the effects of GMS on human health and behaviour.

Decadal Cycles in the Human Cardiovascular System

Seven of the eight authors of this report each performed physiologic self-surveillance, some around the clock for decades. We here document the presence of long cycles (decadals, including circaundecennians) in the time structure of systolic (S) and diastolic (D) blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR). Because of the non-stationary nature in time and space of these and other physiologic and environmental periodic components that, like the wind, can appear and disappear in a given or other geographic location at one or another time, they have been called "Aeolian". The nonlinear estimation of the uncertainties of the periods (τs) of two or more variables being compared has been used to determine whether these components are congruent or not, depending on whether their CIs (95% confidence intervals) overlap or not. Among others, congruence has been found for components with τs clustering around 10 years in us and around us. There is a selective assortment among individuals, variables and cycle characteristics (mean and circadian amplitude and acrophase). Apart from basic interest, like other nonphotic solar signatures such as transyears with periods slightly longer than one year or about 33-year Brückner-Egeson-Lockyer (BEL) cycles, about 10-year and longer cycles present in 7 of 7 self-monitoring individuals are of interest in the diagnosis of Vascular Variability Anomalies (VVAs), including MESOR-hypertension, and others. Some of the other VVAs, such as a circadian overswing, i.e., CHAT (Circadian Hyper-Aplitude-Tension), or an excessive pulse pressure, based on repeated 7-day around-the-clock records, can represent a risk of severe cardiovascular events, greater than that of a high BP. The differential diagnosis of physiologic cycles, infradians (components with a τ longer than 28 hours) as well as circadians awaits the collection of reference values for the infradian parameters of the cycles described herein. Just as in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats during the weeks after weaning CHAT precedes an elevation of the BP MESOR, a decadal overswing seems to precede the occurrence of high BP in two of the subjects here examined. Only around-the-clock monitoring in health for the collection of reference values will allow on their basis the differential diagnosis of the onsets of a circadian versus a circadecadal overswing in BP and the specification whether, and if so, when to initiate hypotensive non-drug or drug treatment.

COSMIC INHERITANCE RULES: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE AND SCIENCE

Countering the trend in specialization, we advocate the trans-disciplinary monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate for signatures of environmental cyclic and other variabilities in space as well as terrestrial weather on the one hand, and for surveillance of personal and societal health on the other hand. New rules (if confirmed novel laws) emerge as we recognize our inheritance from the cosmos of cycles that constitute and characterize life and align them with inheritance from parents. In so doing, we happen to follow the endeavors of Gregor Mendel, who recognized the segregation and independent assortment of what became known as genes. Circadians, rhythms with periods, τ, between 20 and 28 hours, and cycles with frequencies that are higher (ultradian) or lower (infradian) than circadian, are genetically anchored. An accumulating long list of very important but aeolian (nonstationary) infradian cycles, characterizing the incidence patterns of sudden cardiac death, suicide and terrorism, with drastically different τs, constitutes the nonphotic (corpuscular emission from the sun, heliogeomagnetics, ultraviolet flux, gravitation) Cornélissen-series.

Stress, geomagnetic disturbance, infradian and circadian sampling for circulating corticosterone and models of human depression?

While certain circadian hormonal changes are prominent, their predictable assessment requires a standardization of conditions of sampling. The 24-hour rhythm in circulating corticosterone of rodents, known since the 1950s, was studied as a presumed proxy for stress on 108 rats divided into 9 groups of 6 male and 9 groups of 6 female animals sampled every 4 hours for 24 hours. In a first stress study, the "no-rhythm" (zero-amplitude) assumption failed to be rejected at the 5% probability level in the two control groups and in 16 out of the 18 groups considered. A circadian rhythm could be detected with statistical significance, however, in three separate follow-up studies in the same laboratory, each on 168 rats kept on two antiphasic lighting regimens, with 4-hourly sampling for 7 or 14 days. In the first stress study, pooling of certain groups helped the detection and assessment of the circadian corticosterone rhythm. Without extrapolating to hormones other than corticosterone, which may shift more slowly or adjust differently and in response to different synchronizers, the three follow-up studies yielded uncertainty measures (95% confidence intervals) for the point estimate of its circadian period, of possible use in any future study as a reference standard. The happenstance of a magnetic disturbance at the start of two follow-up studies was associated with the detection of a circasemiseptan component, raising the question whether a geomagnetic disturbance could be considered as a "load". Far beyond the limitations of sample size, the methodological requirements for standardization in the experimental laboratory concerning designs of studies are considered in the context of models of depression. Lessons from nature's unforeseen geomagnetic contribution and from human studies are noted, all to support the advocacy, in the study of loads, of sampling schedules covering more than 24 hours.

Schedule shifts, cancer and longevity: good, bad or indifferent?

Prompted by a recent report of the possible carcinogenic effect of shiftwork focusing on the disruption of circadian rhythms, we review studies involving shifts in schedule implemented at varying intervals in unicells, insects and mammals, including humans. Results indicate the desirability to account for a broader-than-circadian view. They also suggest the possibility of optimizing schedule shifts by selecting intervals between consecutive shifts associated with potential side-effects such as an increase in cancer risk. Toward this goal, marker rhythmometry is most desirable. The monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate present the added benefit of assessing cardiovascular disease risks resulting not only from an elevated blood pressure but also from abnormal variability in blood pressure and/or heart rate of normotensive as well as hypertensive subjects.

Chronomics of autism and suicide

We examine whether autism may be influenced by non-photic environmental factors, among others, in a California database consisting of the number of cases added quarterly to the system between 1993 and 2004. Instead of a precise calendar (1.0)-year-long spectral component, we detect unseen primarily helio- and geomagnetic signatures, including a newly discovered near-transyear of 1.09-year length. In this case, it overrides any undetected seasonal effects, the topic of much previous unrewarding research, also analyzed herein without overcoming the limitation by stacking. Since we could not get additional data on autism, data on suicides, the final "detachment" and failure to bond, were also analyzed, again revealing a spectrum of non-photic signatures. What we do not see and do not anticipate can exist and can override the seasons, as resolved time-microscopically by chronomics, the study of chronomes (time structures). Just as spatial microscopy and electron microscopy resolved infectious agents, so does microscopy in time resolve the signature of environmental agents in human behavior in health and disease.

Time microscopy for all kinds of data including circadian clock biology

Data showing a rhythm to the naked eye prominently, barely or not at all were described as kinds A, B and C, respectively. Here, we document good agreement between estimates of maxima and minima with eyeballing and with the addition of point and interval estimates of parameters in kind A data. We also construct a chart that provides estimates of uncertainties that can be obtained objectively while they are more difficult to quantify subjectively; again there is agreement. Interval as point estimates of rhythm characteristics and parameter comparisons are useful in charting all kinds of data and become indispensable as we proceed from kind A to kind C data. Illustrations included herein from molecular biology apply equally to all aspects of transdisciplinary science.

Prokaryotic and eukaryotic unicellular chronomics

An impeccable time series, published in 1930, consisting of hourly observations on colony advance in a fluid culture of E. coli, was analyzed by a periodogram and power spectrum in 1961. While the original senior author had emphasized specifically periodicity with no estimate of period length, he welcomed further analyses. After consulting his technician, he knew of no environmental periodicity related to human schedules other than an hourly photography. A periodogram analysis in 1961 showed a 20.75-h period. It was emphasized that "... the circadian period disclosed is not of exactly 24-h length." Confirmations notwithstanding, a committee ruled out microbial circadian rhythms based on grounds that could have led to a different conclusion, namely first, the inability of some committee members to see (presumably by eyeballing) the rhythms in their own data, and second, what hardly follows, that there were "too many analyses" in the published papers. Our point in dealing with microbes and humans is that analyses are indispensable for quantification and for discovering a biologically novel spectrum of cyclicities, matching physical ones. The scope of circadian organization estimated in 1961 has become broader, including about 7-day, about half-yearly, about-yearly and ex-yearly and decadal periodisms, among others. Microbial circadians have become a field of their own with eyeballing, yet time-microscopy can quantify characteristics with their uncertainties and can assess broad chronomes (time structures) with features beyond circadians. As yet only suggestive differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes further broaden the perspective and may lead to life's sites of origin and to new temporal aspects of life's development as a chronomic tree by eventual rhythm dating in ontogeny and phylogeny.