BrainMind Summit, Stanford

A summit talk on circadian rhythm and the brain, given to an audience of researchers, clinicians and investors interested in where neuroscience is heading.

The material spans the clock's reach into the nervous system. Daily timing shapes sleep, mood and cognition directly, and Dr Panda's work on light sensing bears on all three. The quality, intensity and timing of light reaching melanopsin expressing retinal cells affects not only rhythm but mood and mental health, with implications extending to the design of clinical environments. His group's time series studies covered brain regions as well as peripheral organs, showing how differently each region behaves across the day. And his exercise research produced the striking finding that training on insufficient nutrition inverts the circadian clocks in most parts of the brain.

The clinical thread concerns neurodegeneration. Circadian disruption appears early in dementia, and the relationship appears to run in both directions, which makes rhythm a candidate target rather than only a symptom.