Abstract
In the behavior patterns of some animals, bouts of activity and rest alternate with a higher frequency than once per day. Such patterns (Figure 1) have been termed polyphasic (Szy-manski, 1920) as opposed to monophasic activity patterns. This distinction represents the artificial dichotomy of a continuum with a single solid daily block of activity at one extreme, through bimodal distributions to high-frequency patterns in which circadian components can no longer be discerned. These short-term rhythms differ from the circarhythms in that they do not correspond with any known environmental periodicity. However, they sometimes display strikingly precise oscillatory features and cannot be overlooked as an important ingredient in the temporal organization of behavior.
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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
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Daan, S., Aschoff, J. (1981). Short-Term Rhythms in Activity. In: Aschoff, J. (eds) Biological Rhythms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6552-9_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6552-9_25
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