"The conditions you need to be a good goalkeeper are exactly the same condition you need to be a good sculptor. You must have a very good connection in both professions, with time and space." Eduardo Chillida To organize circadian (~24 h) rhythms in physiology and behavior, the brain's master circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) must, like a proficient goalkeeper or sculptor, coordinate and connect its signals in both time and space. Individual SCN neurons contain the intracellular molecular clockworks, but these several thousand cell autonomous oscillators require intercellular communication to synchronize their timekeeping. How the SCN achieves the integration of intracellular and intercellular signals across its anatomical structure is far from understood. The current study by Pauls et al. (2014) presents new analytical tools to interrogate the spatiotemporal organization of the SCN.
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