Age plays a critical role in disease development and tolerance to cancer treatment, often leading to an increased risk of developing negative symptoms including sleep disturbances. Circadian rhythms and sleep become disrupted as organisms age. In this study, we explored the behavioral alterations in sleep, circadian rhythms, and masking using a novel video system and interrogate the long-term impact of age-based changes in the non-image forming visual pathway on brain anatomy. We demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the novel system and establish that older mice have disruptions in sleep, circadian rhythms, and masking behaviors that were associated with major negative volume alterations in the non-imaging forming visual system, critical for the induction and rhythmic expression of sleep. These results provide important insights into a mechanism, showing brain atrophy is linked to age in distinct non-image forming visual regions, which may predispose older individuals to developing circadian and sleep dysfunction when further challenged by disease or treatment.

年龄在疾病的发展和对癌症的耐受性中起着至关重要的作用，通常会导致出现包括睡眠障碍在内的负面症状的风险增加。随着生物体的衰老，昼夜节律和睡眠会受到干扰。在这项研究中，我们探索了使用新型视频系统的睡眠，昼夜节律和掩盖的行为改变，并审视了基于年龄的变化对非解剖结构视觉通路对大脑解剖结构的长期影响。我们证明了该新系统的可行性和实用性，并确定年长小鼠的睡眠，昼夜节律和掩盖行为均与非成像视觉系统中的主要负体积变化有关，这对于诱导和节律性表达至关重要睡眠