Walter Randall

The solar wind and human birth rate: A possible relationship due to magnetic disturbances

Data obtained from the literature on the annual pattern of human conceptions and plasma melatonin at high latitudes indicated that simple annual rhythms do not exist. Instead, prominent semiannual rhythms are found, with equinoctial troughs and solsticial peaks. A prominent semiannual environmental event is the magnetic disturbance induced by the solar wind. The semiannual magnetic disturbances are worldwide, but most pronounced in the auroral zones where the corpuscular radiation enters the atmosphere. Magnetic indices that predominantly reflect these events were obtained from the literature and correlated with the melatonin and conception data. Significant and inverse correlations were found for Inuit conceptions and the melatonin data. The correlations obtained for 48 contiguous states of the United States indicated that only the extreme northern states exhibited this relationship. These data were compared with a previous correlational study in the United States which established that sunshine was correlated with conceptions in the middle latitude and southern states. An hypothesis of dual control by electromagnetic and magnetic energies is proposed: melatonin is a progonadal hormone in humans controlled by both factors, depending on their relative strength. Other studies are reviewed regarding the possible factors involved in determining the annual pattern of human conceptions. Demographic studies of geographic variation in temporal patterns of conceptions, with particular regard to variations of the magnetic fields on the earths surface, may provide some insight into the efficacy of these different factors.

Abnormalities in grooming behavior and tryptophan hydroxylase activity in the superior colliculi in cats with pontile and frontal neocortical lesions.

Cats with pontile or frontal neocortical lesions display a dissociation of the appetitive and consummatory components of grooming behavior when their body surface is tactually stimulated, an abnormal behavior that waxes and wanes with the seasons of the year. Tryptophan hydroxylase activity is significantly decreased in the superior colliculi of cats with pontile lesions and of cats with frontal neocortical lesions. The results suggest that the change in tryptophan hydroxylase activity is mediated neuronally and is a transneuronal effect on the serotonergic input to the superior colliculi. Pharmacological manipulations of the serotonergic system in normal cats failed to induce the abnormal behavior, indicating that other factors are involved in the genesis of the abnormal behavior.

Rhythmic dysfunctions in 11‐hydroxycorticoid excretion after midbrain lesions and their relationship to an abnormal grooming behavior in Cats∗∗∗

Abstract Cats with midbrain lesions exhibit a dissociation between appetitive and consummatory grooming behaviors that waxes and wanes with the seasons of the year. Because of various indications that the glucocorticoid hormones are involved in central nervous system functioning, and because the midbrain is implicated in the control and regulation of glucocorticoid hormones, and because of the prominent seasonal rhythm in glucocorticoid hormones, a measure of the urinary excretion of glucocorticoid hormones was obtained once a month for a year on normal and lesioned groups of cats. A quantitative measure of the grooming abnormality was obtained throughout the same year. A timing dysfunction in glucocorticoid excretion was found in the lesioned group: the normal group exhibited a prominent annual rhythm, but for the lesioned group a prominent four‐month rhythm was evident. The grooming abnormalities exhibited a prominent peak in the fall with minor fluctuations of about four‐months duration. Because the i...

A two-peak circadian system in body temperature and activity in the domestic cat, Felis catus L.

Abstract 1. 1.|The body temperature and activity of cats exhibit two-peak patterns during the 24 hr period. 2. 2.|The two peaks are retained when the temperature and activity are permitted to freerun. 3. 3.|A third prominent peak appears in the actograms in cats in the main colony, induced by the presence of humans.

A complex seasonal rhythm controlled by photoperiod

Summary1.A rhythm with three peaks and troughs during the year exists for the size of the receptive field for grooming reflexes in cats with pontile lesions (Fig. 5). To determine the role of photoperiod in regulating this rhythm, cats with pontile lesions were studied in two different experiments involving photoperiod manipulations.2.In the first experiment two groups of cats with pontile lesions were exposed to continuously-varying LD cycles, with one group exposed to a schedule of LD cycles with progressively longer photoperiods and the other group in an adjacent room simultaneously exposed to a schedule of LD cycles with progressively shorter photoperiods. The schedules were controlled by automatic clocks which provided the naturally-occurring changes in sunlight photoperiods. The size of the receptive field for the two groups diverged and then reconverged after the LD cycles passed through opposite solstices (Fig. 1).3.In the second photoperiod manipulation, the cats were exposed to fixed LD cycles. The size of the receptive field for grooming reflexes was monitored until stable endpoints were obtained (Fig. 2). The stable endpoints, when plotted with their respective photoperiods, indicated an approximately linear trend between LD 10∶14 and LD 15∶9 (decreasing), with reversals of this trend at both extremes (Fig. 3).4.The data from the photoperiod manipulations were compared with previous longitudinal data. Biweekly measures of the size of the receptive field from three previous longitudinal studies were combined. The 26 biweekly means when plotted with their respective photoperiods exhibited an approximately linearly decreasing trend with reversals at both extremes (Fig. 4), a pattern similar to the one obtained with the photoperiod manipulations.5.The results were discussed in terms of Bünnings model of photoperiodic control. This model has the versatility to account for complex rhythms during the year, a versatility provided basically by the circadian oscillator and the possibility of phase control by the particular LD cycle. Auto-interaction, a phenomenon well known in enzymology and pharmacology, is a possible mechanism which increases the versatility of the model.

Consummatory grooming fragments: A model for periodic behaviors*

Cats with midbrain lesions exhibit an abnormal dissociation between appetitive and consummatory grooming behaviors. Periodic regression analyses of two sets of behavioral data from groups studied in different years revealed a 4-month rhythm, with the same timing in both years. Various long-term endocrine rhythms that may be involved in the rhythmic disintegration of grooming behavior are discussed.

Freerunning and entrained circadian rhythms in body temperature in the domestic cat

Abstract The body temperature of the domestic cat was determined by radiotelemetry from implants in the peritoneal cavity. Longitudinal data were collected and analyzed with a periodic regression technique. Thermograms and actograms were constructed in order to study the transients that follow a phase shift of the LD cycle and to discern the freerun in body temperature and activity in constant dark. The main results indicate that the domestic cat has a prominent circadian rhythm in body temperature. Prominent transients occur after a phase shift of the LD cycle, and the temperature rhythm freeruns in constant dark, maintaining a constant phase angle relationship with the freerunning rhythm in activity.

Sunshine rhythms, a possible Zeitgeber for multiphasic biological rhythms during a year

Abstract Data on sunshine and barometric pressure were analyzed with a periodic regression technique, using the trigonometric fitting functions of the Fourier series. The data were obtained from U.S. Weather Stations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and least‐squares fitted curves were obtained for each years data from 1950 to 1968. A prominent similarity for most of the curves was the occurence of three or four peaks and troughs of approximately equal amplitude within a year. A peak in the fall of the year was usually present, and a length of day influence was not a typical feature of the curves. In general, then, sunshine and barometric pressure do not exhibit annual rhythms, and the possible role of these shorter term variations in climatological events as synchronizers of physiological processes is discussed. A review of studies where repeated sampling of endocrine or metabolic variables were made throughout a period of a year or longer indicates no annual rhythms but rather multiple p...

The 11-year cycle in human births.

The annual numbers of human births were analyzed with regard to an 11-year cycle. The annual values were obtained from seven different regions: Australia, Germany, England and Wales, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, and the USA. Fifty-five annual values were obtained from each region for the years 1930 to 1984, comprising approximately five sunspot cycles. For each region the annual values were formed into 5 by 11 matrices; the eleven column means obtained were standardized, and plotted. A periodic regression technique, utilizing the fitting functions of the Fourier series, was used to evaluate the temporal order in the column means. Eleven-year rhythms were found and compared with solar and geophysical variables. Correlations were found with sunspots and solar flares, with terrestrial measures of magnetic disturbances (the magnetic indices derived from the K-index), and with temperature. The correlation of conceptions with the 11-year solar cycle may be a potential guide in the selection of further variables for the control and regulation of the rhythms in human conceptions.

A serotonergic system involved in the grooming behavior of cats with pontile lesion

Abstract Cats with pontile lesions exhibit an abnormal grooming behavior that consists of a disintegration of the appetitive and consummatory components. A serotonergic system is implicated because both 5-hydroxytryptophan and seryl-trihydroxybenzyl-hydrazine (but not dihydroxyphenylalanine) abolish the abnormal behavior, and because para-chlorophenylalanine abolishes the effectiveness of seryl-trihydroxybenzyl-hydrazine. The effectiveness of 5-hydroxytryptophan is abolished in cats pretreated with both para-chlorophenylalanine and seryl-trihydroxybenzyl-hydrazine. These results indicate that 5-hydroxytryptophan must first be decarboxylated to 5-hydroxytryptamine before it has an effect on the behavior. Additional evidence that a serotonergic system is involved in the grooming behavior was obtained by determining the activity of the enzyme, tryptophan hydroxylase, in the superior colliculi of cats with unilateral pontile lesions. A decreased activity ipsilateral to the unilateral lesion was found, suggesting that a transection of serotonergic input to the superior colliculus may be a primary effect of the lesion.