Regional Hypothalamic Responses to Light Vary Across Developmental Stages but Remain Stable with Time of Day

Background: Light plays a significant role in regulating various non-visual biological processes, such as stimulating alertness and cognition. However, the precise subcortical neural pathways are not fully established, including within the hypothalamus. In particular, how the hypothalamus processes are modulated by time-of-day and developmental stages, remains poorly understood. Methods: In this study, we used 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine in vivo the impact of different light illuminance (0.16, 37, 92, and 190 melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance: mel-EDI lux) on the activity of the hypothalamus of healthy young adults (N=33; 20 women; 24.3 +/- 3.2y) and adolescents (N=16; 5 women; 16.8 +/- 1.1y) while they completed an auditory executive task, in the morning or in the evening. Results: Performance to the task improved with increasing illuminance irrespective of time of day and age group. When focusing on time-of-day differences in young adults, we found that the regional impact of light illuminance on the activity of the hypothalamus was consistent between the morning and the evening, with the posterior and anterior hypothalamus, respectively, showing increased and decreased activity with increasing illuminance. When focusing on developmental stages differences, during the evening session only, we found similar regional patterns in adolescents and young adult. The magnitude of the response at the highest illuminance was, however, larger in adolescents, with a larger deactivation of the superior-anterior and inferior-tubular hypothalamus. Conclusions: These findings reveal a complex and non-uniform impact of light on hypothalamus activity and provide novel insights into how light influences vary with developmental stages.