AO3

• SCN research may obscure other body clocks
• Research has revealed that there are numerous circadian rhythms in many organs and cells in the body
• These peripheral oscillators are found in the organs including the lungs, pancreas and skin. They are influenced by the actions of the SCN but also act independently
• Damiola et al demonstrated how changing feeding patterns in mice could alter the circadian rhythms of cells in the liver by up to 12 hours whilst leaving the rhythm of the SCN unaffected
• endogenous pacemakers cannot be studied in isolation
• total isolation studies such as siffre are extremely rare. Siffre made use of artificial light which could have reset his biological clock
• In everyday life pacemakers and zeitgebers interact and it may make little sense to separate the two for the purpose of research