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Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts A Model for Humoral Phototransduction Daniel Oren, M.D. The identification of wintertime Seasonal Affective Disorder in 1984 as a light-sensitive form of Major Depressive Disorder and its successful treatment with light therapy has led to a search for the mechanism of phototherapy in the psychiatric disorder. Much of the work to date has involved the study of melatonin, the light-sensitive pineal hormone thought to play a critical role in regulating biological rhythms throughout the animal kingdom. I will present an evolutionary-based paradigm by which light may affect the biochemistry of humans and other animals in a novel manner. This integrative anatomic, cellular, and molecular model proposes a mechanism ("humoral phototransduction") by which light (photons) may mediate various aspects of animal physiology, including neurotransmission, circadian and circannual rhythms, and the treatment of winter depression. Evidence linking certain other neuropsychiatric illnesses to abnormalities of this photoreceptive system will be reviewed in the context of this theory.
The Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study |
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