Biological Clocks: Psychophysiologic Evidence for the Existence of One such Clock Specific to Certain Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

1. Personal, interior or biological time is distinguished from sidereal and other reference forms of time, and the measurement of time-lapse by clocks is discussed in terms of biological clocks and of consciousness of the sense of time. 2. Examples of biological time-keeping in plants and animals are given, along with evidence that the duration or recurrence rate of endogenous biological rhythms can vary from 2,000 cycles/sec. up to 1 cycle/year or more. 3. Engineering analogues of biological oscillators and their mathematical treatment are surveyed, along with a discussion of the role such oscillating systems play in maintenance of homoiostasis in the organism. 4. The operating characteristics of circadian-type registration of biological clocks are summarized and reviewed in terms of their relevance to periodic illness occurring in medical practice. 5. Evidence for the operation of an endogenous, innate, psychiatric clock is presented, the pace-making setting of which appears to predetermine certain types of psychiatric illness. Some characteristics of this clock are described.