Siberian hamsters free run or become arrhythmic after a phase delay of the photocycle

Body temperature (T-b) and locomotor activity were recorded telemetrically from male Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus sungorus) that were 3 or 12 mo of age and maintained in a light-dark (LD) cycle of 16 h light/day for 2-4 mo. After 3 wk of T-b recording, the LD cycle was phase delayed by extending the light phase by 5 h for 1 day; animals remained on a 16:8-h LD cycle for the remainder of the experiment. T-b and activity rhythms of all animals were stably entrained to the LD cycle before the phase shift. After the phase shift, greater than or equal to 80% of the animals in each age group failed to reentrain and expressed free-running T-b rhythms with stable periods that ranged from 24.33 to 26.33 h; one hamster in each age group reentrained within several days. T-b became arrhythmic in 10% of all animals immediately after, and in 28% of free running animals several weeks after, the phase shift. Changes in tau and phase of activity rhythms closely paralleled T-b rhythms in individual hamsters. Daily mean T-b was unchanged, but T-b rhythm amplitude decreased by 25-50% in individual animals after the phase shift. We believe this to be the first report of neurologically intact animals failing to reentrain to a phase shift of the LD cycle. These phenomena are not readily explained by current knowledge of circadian systems and suggest that the entrainment process in Siberian hamsters differs markedly from that in other rodent species.