WoS İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / WoS Indexed Publications Collection
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/7150
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Article Relationships Between Light Exposure and Aspects of Cognitive Function in Everyday Life(Springer Nature, 2025) Didikoglu, Altug; Woelders, Tom; Bickerstaff, Lucien; Mohammadian, Navid; Johnson, Sheena; van Tongeren, Martie; Lucas, Robert J.Light exposure can modulate cognitive function, yet its effects outside of controlled laboratory settings remain insufficiently explored. To examine the relationship between real-world light exposure and cognitive performance, we assessed personal light exposure and measured subjective sleepiness, vigilance, working memory, and visual search performance over 7 days of daily life, in a convenience sample of UK adults (n = 58) without significant circadian challenge (shiftwork or jet-lag). A subset of participants (n = 41) attended an in-lab session comprising a battery of pupillometric and psychophysical tests aimed to quantify melanopsin-driven visual responses. We find significant associations between recent light exposure and subjective sleepiness. Recent light exposure was also associated with reaction times for both psychomotor vigilance and working memory tasks. In addition, higher daytime light exposure and an exposure pattern with reduced fragmentation were linked to improved cognitive performance across visual search, psychomotor vigilance, and working memory tasks. Higher daytime light exposure and earlier estimated bedtimes were associated with stronger relationships between recent light exposure and subjective sleepiness. These results provide real world support for the notion that intra- and inter-individual differences in light exposure meaningfully influence aspects of cognition, with beneficial effects of short-term bright light and of habitual light exposure patterns characterized by brighter daytimes, earlier rest phase, and greater intra- and inter-daily stability.Article Meal Timing Trajectories in Older Adults and Their Associations With Morbidity, Genetic Profiles, and Mortality(Springernature, 2025) Dashti, Hassan S.; Liu, Chloe; Deng, Hao; Sharma, Anushka; Payton, Antony; Maharani, Asri; Didikoglu, AltugBackgroundOlder adults are vulnerable to mistimed food intake due to health and environmental changes; characterizing meal timing may inform strategies to promote healthy aging. We investigated longitudinal trajectories of self-reported meal timing in older adults and their associations with morbidity, genetic profiles, and all-cause mortality.MethodsWe analyzed data from 2945 community-dwelling older adults from the University of Manchester Longitudinal Study of Cognition in Normal Healthy Old Age, with up to five repeated assessments of meal timing and health behaviors conducted between 1983 and 2017. Linear mixed-effects models, latent class analysis, and Cox regression were used to examine relationships between meal timing with illness and behavioral factors, genetic scores for chronotype and obesity, and mortality.ResultsHere we show older age is associated with later breakfast and dinner times, a later eating midpoint, and a shorter daily eating window. Physical and psychological illnesses, including fatigue, oral health problems, depression, anxiety, and multimorbidity, are primarily associated with later breakfast. Genetic profiles related to an evening chronotype, but not obesity, are linked to later meals. Later breakfast timing is also associated with increased mortality. Latent class analysis of meal timing trajectories identify early and late eating groups, with 10-year survival rates of 86.7% in the late eating group compared to 89.5% in the early eating group.ConclusionsMeal timing, particularly later breakfast, shifts with age and may reflect broader health changes in older adults, with implications for morbidity and longevity.Article Citation - WoS: 5Citation - Scopus: 6Beyond Lux: Methods for Species and Photoreceptor-Specific Quantification of Ambient Light for Mammals(Bmc, 2024) McDowell, Richard J.; Didikoğlu, Altuğ; Didikoglu, Altug; Woelders, Tom; Gatt, Mazie J.; Moffatt, Finn; Notash, Saba; Lucas, Robert J.BackgroundLight is a key environmental regulator of physiology and behaviour. Mistimed or insufficient light disrupts circadian rhythms and is associated with impaired health and well-being across mammals. Appropriate lighting is therefore crucial for indoor housed mammals. Light is commonly measured in lux. However, this employs a spectral weighting function for human luminance and is not suitable for 'non-visual' effects of light or use across species. In humans, a photoreceptor-specific (alpha-opic) metrology system has been proposed as a more appropriate way of measuring light.ResultsHere we establish technology to allow this alpha-opic measurement approach to be readily extended across mammalian species, accounting for differences in photoreceptor types, photopigment spectral sensitivities, and eye anatomy. We develop a high-throughput method to derive spectral sensitivities for recombinantly expressed mammalian opsins and use it to establish the spectral sensitivity of melanopsin from 13 non-human mammals. We further address the need for simple measurement strategies for species-specific alpha-opic measures by developing an accessible online toolbox for calculating these units and validating an open hardware multichannel light sensor for 'point and click' measurement. We finally demonstrate that species-specific alpha-opic measurements are superior to photopic lux as predictors of physiological responses to light in mice and allow ecologically relevant comparisons of photosensitivity between species.ConclusionsOur study presents methods for measuring light in species-specific alpha-opic units that are superior to the existing unit of photopic lux and holds the promise of improvements to the health and welfare of animals, scientific research reproducibility, agricultural productivity, and energy usage.Review Citation - WoS: 24Citation - Scopus: 27Recommendations for Measuring and Standardizing Light for Laboratory Mammals To Improve Welfare and Reproducibility in Animal Research(Public Library Science, 2024) Lucas, Robert J.; Allen, Annette E.; Brainard, George C.; Brown, Timothy M.; Dauchy, Robert T.; Didikoglu, Altug; Peirson, Stuart N.Light enables vision and exerts widespread effects on physiology and behavior, including regulating circadian rhythms, sleep, hormone synthesis, affective state, and cognitive processes. Appropriate lighting in animal facilities may support welfare and ensure that animals enter experiments in an appropriate physiological and behavioral state. Furthermore, proper consideration of light during experimentation is important both when it is explicitly employed as an independent variable and as a general feature of the environment. This Consensus View discusses metrics to use for the quantification of light appropriate for nonhuman mammals and their application to improve animal welfare and the quality of animal research. It provides methods for measuring these metrics, practical guidance for their implementation in husbandry and experimentation, and quantitative guidance on appropriate light exposure for laboratory mammals. The guidance provided has the potential to improve data quality and contribute to reduction and refinement, helping to ensure more ethical animal use. Lighting conditions for laboratory mammals is currently set according to the sensitivity of human vision. This Consensus View defines alternative 'animal-centric' metrics and provides guidance for their application to standardize experimental conditions, improve animal welfare and the quality of animal research.
