Effect of a jet lag on the SCN model.

<p>(A) In the case of an network with , the 8-hour shift due to a long night (at ) affects the phase of the peak of (black line) for about 3 cycles. Before the jet lag, the peak occurs about 4 hours after the night. In the first 3 cycles, the peak is in the late day and regains its initial phase at the fourth cycle (top inset, a positive value implies a phase advance). Throughout this perturbation, the cells remain well synchronized: the phase order parameter (blue line) is even increased. (B) For an network with , the system needs about 6 cycles to recover its correct phase and suffers a strong desynchronization. (C) For an network with , the system needs only 4 cycles to recover the phase, but cells are strongly desynchronized and the amplitude of oscillations decreases significantly. (D–E) Decrease in the phase order parameter after the jet lag (D), and number of cycles needed for the phase to be within 1 hour of the phase prior to the jet lag (E) as a function of the network type and the average degree. In both plots, lower values correspond to a faster adaptation: networks show better results for both properties. Note that the results for the networks are less relevant as the oscillation amplitude is low (<a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002419#pcbi-1002419-g004" target="_blank">Fig. 4D</a>). Results using other types of jet lags are plotted in <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002419#pcbi.1002419.s005" target="_blank">figure S5</a>. (F–G) Decrease in the phase order parameter (F), and number of cycles needed for phase resynchronization (G) after the jet lag as a function of the shift in hours for and networks with . In all cases, except with , advance shifts (dots) have a stronger impact than the corresponding delay shifts (circles).