This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Retinohypothalamic tract is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
The Retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) is a photic input pathway involved in circadian rhythms. The RHT is an input pathway from the retina to the suprachiasmatic nucleus[1] (or nuclei; SCN) in the brain, and is important in the entrainment of the mammalian 'body clock' to the external environment. The retinal cells involved in the RHT are photoreceptive retinal ganglion cells containing the photopigment melanopsin, and they project directly to the SCN. The information these photosensitive ganglion cells receive on day-length is interpreted by the SCN, and passed on to the pineal gland, which then secretes the hormone melatonin in response to this exogenous environmental signal.
References
- ^ Gooley JJ, Lu J, Chou TC, Scammell TE, Saper CB (2001). "Melanopsin in cells of origin of the retinohypothalamic tract". Nat. Neurosci. 4 (12): 1165. doi:. PMID 11713469.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 7 June 2008, at 13:40.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Retinohypothalamic tract".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.