Researchers from the University of Manchester for the first time have discovered how the color of light impacts the internal clock in the animals and humans.
Animals and humans have an internal clock by which everything functions properly; it is similar to the CPU of the computer which is having a clock that guides all the operations.
Researchers have identified the neurological mechanism for how the internal clock of the body measures the color of the light to determine time.
It is known that the intensity of light varies at sunlight, sunrise and even during twilight.
Researchers have taken mice for the study, they have used different visual stimuli and recorded the electrical activity from the brain clock, they discovered that the neurons of the brain are much sensitive to the color changes between yellow and blue and it is not depended on the brightness of the light.
To create an artificial sky with color changes from sunrise to sunset, they have recorded the brightness and color of the light from the top of the University’s building for a month.
The artificial sky is then created using the data. Researchers found that the mice has recorded highest blood temperatures after the dusk, which is their general behavior, this means that the body clock of the mice was aligned with the color changes of the artificial sky.
But when the researchers have changed the brightness of the sky, the body clock of the mice was not working with the changes in the brightness i.e. the clock couldn’t synchronize with the brightness and the mice was more active before dusk.
Researchers said, “This is the first time that we’ve been able to test the theory that color affects our body clock in any mammal. It has always been very hard to separate the change in color to the change in brightness but using new experimental tools and a psychophysics approach we were successful.”
They added, “What’s exciting about our research is that the same findings can be applied to humans. So, in theory, color could be used to manipulate our clock, which could be useful for shift workers or travelers wanting to minimize jet lag.”
