Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, Institute of Zoology, Neuroendocrinology and Human Biology Unit, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
Chronobiol Int. 2021 Dec;38(12):1738-1744. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2021.1953048. Epub 2021 Aug 1.
Seasonal and circadian rhythms have a broad impact on physiological aspects, such as dopamine neurotransmission, and may be involved in the etiology of mood disorders. Considering this, studies on the influence of season and daytime on cognitive function are rare. The present study aimed to assess the impact of seasonal and diurnal effects on the ability to maximize reward outcomes by optimizing response times adaptively. For this purpose, a reward-based learning task that required an adaptation of response time to either a fast or a slow response was used. Eighty German participants (mean age ± SD = 21.86 ± 1.89 years, 41 women) were examined twice, in the morning and in the evening. Half of the participants were tested during the summer, while the other half performed the test in the winter. No impact of daytime, season or of the external factors photoperiodicity and temperature on reinforcement learning could be found. However, a generally slower response speed in the morning compared to the evening appeared. Previously conducted tasks could not display behavioral differences in both times of season and daytime, although neurophysiological findings suggest it.
季节和昼夜节律对生理方面有广泛影响，例如多巴胺神经传递，并且可能与情绪障碍的病因有关。考虑到这一点，关于季节和白天对认知功能影响的研究很少。本研究旨在评估季节和昼夜效应对通过自适应优化反应时间来最大化奖励结果的能力的影响。为此，使用了一种基于奖励的学习任务，该任务要求根据快速或慢速反应来调整反应时间。80 名德国参与者（平均年龄 ± 标准差=21.86 ± 1.89 岁，41 名女性）被测试了两次，分别在早上和晚上。一半的参与者在夏季进行测试，而另一半则在冬季进行测试。没有发现白天、季节或外部因素光照和温度对强化学习的影响。然而，与晚上相比，人们在早上的反应速度通常较慢。尽管神经生理学研究结果表明，但之前进行的任务在季节和白天的不同时间并没有表现出行为差异。
