The Circadian Brain and Cognition.

Circadian rhythms are inherent to living organisms from single cells to humans and operate on a genetically determined cycle of approximately 24 hours. These endogenous rhythms are aligned with the external light/dark cycle of the Earth's rotation and offer the advantage of anticipating environmental changes. Circadian rhythms act directly on human cognition and indirectly through their fundamental influence on sleep/wake cycles. The strength of the circadian regulation of performance depends on the accumulated sleep debt and the cognitive domain, and it has been suggested to involve the activation of ascending arousal systems and their interaction with attention and other cognitive processes. In addition, attention-related cortical responses show extensive circadian rhythms, the phases of which vary across brain regions. This review discusses the impact of the circadian system on sleep/wake regulation and cognitive performance. It further addresses the health implications of circadian disruption, particularly in relation to mental and neurological disorders.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Annual Review of Psychology

• Publication date

  2024-10-23

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1146/annurev-psych-022824-043825PMID 39441908
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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