The Clocks of Self-Regulation: Rhythms of ATPases Generate Behavioral Regulation
摘要
This chapter serves as the opening chapter of Part II in this book, and as such it presents the general view of Part II, describing the origins of early human behavioral clocks as based on the maturation on specific neural networks. Self-regulation can be described as the capacity of the organism to return to balance after mounting arousals. This definition applies to both physiological and behavioral processes. As such it serves as an umbrella for all neural-based behavioral accomplishments from mid-gestation onwards. The clocks of self-regulation presented in this chapter show that behaviors exist even before the neural tube closes, while their self-regulatory characteristics emerge only at mid-gestation. This chapter argues that early behavioral regulation is dependent on the timely electron transport and accurate expression of ATPases. Specifically, it is accepted that generating the human six-layered cerebral cortex, which serves for the elicitation of more regulated behaviors, is dependent on integrating signals from various cell types. This chapter shows that this accomplishment is dependent on the ionic gradients of the cell membrane potential and accurate function of the ATPases. Furthermore, the molecular rhythms that lead firing rates and their timing during embryonic life develop through mid-gestation to afford the elicitation of early fetal self-regulatory behaviors and their return to balance after mounting arousal. This chapter also shows that ATPases events are reversible and shaped by behavior from mid-gestation onwards. This includes feedback mechanisms originating in self-regulatory behaviors and transmitted back to the molecular level. At the time window of mid-gestation, ATPases reduce the dominance of excitation and start to balance it under the control of clock genes which by then gradually shift from ultradian to circadian oscillations. It is concluded that the ATPases function as the early flexible basis of the emerging self-regulated behaviors, while timing of changes in ATPases expression is controlled by clock genes. ATPases thus control the timing of behavioral regulation, covering by that a large umbrella of emerging self-regulatory behaviors from mid-gestation onwards.