Suppression of Circadian Timing and Its Impact on the Hippocampus

In this article, I describe the development of the disruptive phase shift (DPS) protocol and its utility for studying how circadian dysfunction impacts memory processing in the hippocampus. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the Siberian hamster is a labile circadian pacemaker that is easily rendered arrhythmic (ARR) by a simple manipulation of ambient lighting. The DPS protocol uses room lighting to administer a phase-advancing signal followed by a phase-delaying signal within one circadian cycle to suppress clock gene rhythms in the SCN. The main advantage of this model for inducing arrhythmia is that the DPS protocol is non-invasive; circadian rhythms are eliminated while leaving the animals neurologically and genetically intact. In the area of learning and memory, DPS arrhythmia produces much different results than arrhythmia by surgical ablation of the SCN. As I show, SCN ablation has little to no effect on memory. By contrast, DPS hamsters have an intact, but arrhythmic, SCN which produces severe deficits in memory tasks that are accompanied by fragmentation of electroencephalographic theta oscillations, increased synaptic inhibition in hippocampal circuits, and diminished responsiveness to cholinergic signaling in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. The studies reviewed here show that DPS hamsters are a promising model for translational studies of adult onset circadian dysfunction in humans.