The Autonomic Nervous System Pulls the Strings to Coordinate Circadian HSC Functions

The Autonomic Nervous System

T sweating sunbather lying quietly in the summer sun or the racing heart and “hair-standing-on-end” sensations experienced by a person suddenly frightened by a horror movie are familiar examples of the body responding automatically to changes in the physical or emotional environment. These responses occur as a result of the actions of the autonomic portion of the nervous system and take place w...

The Autonomic Nervous System

Drugs Affecting the Autonomic Nervous System 83 General Organization and Functions of the Nervous System

Sleep and circadian influences on cardiac autonomic nervous system activity.

To assess the separate contributions of the sleep and circadian systems to changes in cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, 12 supine subjects participated in two 26-h constant routines, which were counterbalanced and separated by 1 wk. One routine did not permit sleep, whereas the second allowed the subjects to sleep during their normal sleep phase. Parasympathetic nervous system ac...

Membrane cytoskeleton: PIP2 pulls the strings

A recent application of optical tweezers has shown that plasma membrane phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2)) levels control adhesion of the membrane bilayer to the underlying cytoskeleton, by regulated direct binding of PIP(2) to cytoskeletal proteins and/or indirect effects on cytoskeleton structure.