Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Models

Dear Colleagues，

The basic properties of biological time-measuring systems have easily lent themselves to mathematical modeling. Therefore, such modeling has been always worked together with experimental approaches to research providing better understanding and prediction of findings of future experimental studies of various rhythmic phenomena in the living nature. Importantly, such modeling is often applied as a tool for the development of a deductive chronobiological theory (i.e., deductive, or “top-down”, approach to research methodology begins with a hypothesis based on existing knowledge about most general properties of a system under investigation and then seeks to test an established theory experimentally). It is also necessary to emphasize that the mathematical modeling and model-based simulations of the rhythmic biological phenomena are far from being just an effort to solve differential equations and adapt them for fitting the collected empirical data. The more important mission of mathematical modeling is in providing a possibility 1) to force a critical analysis of existing empirical datasets, 2) to enable extraction of additional information from current datasets beyond what can be reported from common statistical analysis, 3) to allow a more effective user of research resources, 4) to help in designing experimental protocols, 5) to provide a possibility to accurately predict the results in as-yet-untested conditions, 6) to point at the hypothetical structures and processes that can be discovered in later studies, 7) to uncover the underlying mechanisms and their basic components, 8) to give a common language to researchers studying different rhythmic phenomena in various species, organs, systems, and processes, etc. The two-process model of sleep-wake regulation developed by Alexander Borbely, Serge Daan, and Domien Beersma can serve as an example of a successful story of mathematical modeling and model-based simulations in the field of sleep and biological rhythm research. It has become the major contributor to our insights into the mechanisms underlying the 24-h sleep-wake pattern for the last four decades.

This Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series, “Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Models”, will cover a selection of recent research topics and current review articles in the field of sleep and circadian rhythms modeling.

Dr. Arcady Putilov
Guest Editor

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