Preliminary evidence for diurnal fluctuations in visual imagery.

In a repeated measures design, the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1973) was administrated to 10 participants each half hour in a single day between 8:00 and 20:00. The questionnaire was also administrated on four consecutive days following the original administration at 8:00, 14:00 and 20:00. These results were then fitted to a model with the superposition of two cosinusoidal functions. An analysis of the results suggested the coexistence of ultradian and circadian cycles in the determination of the vividness of visual imagery.

Ultradian rhythmic neuronal oscillation in the intergeniculate leaflet.

Our paper is the first to describe ultradian rhythmic neuronal oscillation in the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) of the rat. We recorded a multiple-unit neuronal activity (MUA) from dorsal to ventral parts of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in anaesthetized rats. In all the subdivisions of the lateral geniculate complex we observed spontaneous irregular firing rates of cells. However only at the anatomical localisation of the IGL, after the light was on, those responses exhibited burst firing with a constant interburst interval, which lasted several hours until the light was off. The duration of that rhythmic oscillation obtained by means of Fourier's analysis was approximately 124 s. To date we have not had sufficient data to discuss possible mechanisms of this neuronal rhythmicity. We can only conclude that light is the most important stimulus not only for suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), but also for the IGL. On the other hand, we can neither exclude nor confirm that in order to evoke ultradian rhythmical oscillation in the IGL, in addition to light also non-photic information is necessary.

Rhythmic changes of some lysosomal hydrolases activity from rat liver. Rhythmic changes of acid phosphatase synthesis.

The activity of acid phosphatase (E.C.3.1.3.2.), arylsulfatase (E.C.3.1.1.23.), beta-galactosidase (E.C.3.1.1.23.), and beta-acetylglucosaminidase (E.C.3.2.1.30.) in rat liver homogenates of 4.5 month-old male rats is presented in this paper. The degradation processes are observed in rat liver homogenate after incubation. The activity of acid phosphatase and beta-acetylglucosaminidase increases, the activity in one of beta-galactosidase is constant, and arylsulfatase decreases during the time of incubation. Furthermore, the maxima of the enzyme activities shift during the incubation in the time of a day. Gel filtration of acid phosphatase on the Sephadex G-150 Superfine and DEAE-cellulose columns determinate the mutual content of acid phosphatase subunits to isoenzymes I and II in various points of a day. The greatest content of acid phosphatase subunits versus both the isoenzymes content is at 02(24), and the greatest content of isoenzyme II versus the content of isoenzymes I appears at 07(12). From these data it is clear that the period of the isoenzyme II synthesis from the subunit amounts to 5 h, while 10 h are necessary to create the isoenzyme I originated from isoenzyme II. The comparison of acid phosphatase activity before and after the homogenate filtration on the Sephadex column indicates the increase of this enzyme activity after its separation from the other proteins and other components.