The brain slices sit in a dish, emitting electric signals 24 hours a day despite being divorced from their larger deep-dish brain pizza. Well, since these slices are from a mouse, they probably should be considered a very thin crust pizza. (No offense to mice, but heftier brain function just isn’t their strong suit.)

And slice is probably a misnomer as well. The brain slices on life support in Rebecca Prosser's lab are more like bagel bites in comparison to the rest of the brain.

Prosser, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Tennessee , is studying the superchaismatic nucleus, a small portion of the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythms.

Circadian rhythms, universal to all animals and plants, are cycles such as the sleep-wake cycle, hunger cycle and body temperature cycle.

"The SCN is a 24-hour clock that evolved back before we had alarm clocks," Prosser said. "For example, we needed to prepare our bodies before the climate changed."

We have alarm clocks now, and we have central heating and air to contend with climate changes. That doesn’t mean the SCN is obsolete, though. When daylight-saving time rolls around, it's the SCN that helps our bodies transition to the time change. Prosser said it takes about one day to shift your SCN one hour.

One of Prosser's biggest projects at the moment is testing how alcohol affects the SCN. Prosser said that the SCN has to take several stimuli into account, and light seems to be priority number one. Glutamate is the chemical that signals light to the SCN, so Prosser is subjecting the brain slices to varying doses of ethanol to see if glutamate is hindered.

And sure enough, knock back a six-pack in an hour and your SCN will be just as drunk as the rest of you. At .09 blood alcohol content, which is just a tick above legally drunk in most states, the SCN can no longer process glutamate, according to Prosser's experiment.

"College students hit that mark more frequently than we want, but unless they're serious alcoholics their SCN won't be harmed too much," Prosser said.

"Alcoholics that suppress glutamate going to the SCN on a regular basis can throw off their clock, which can be a serious problem."

That serious problem can manifest itself as depression, which is another project that Prosser is working on. Depression medication often raises seratonin levels in the brain. Seratonin signals arousal or activity to the SCN, so taking depression medication at the wrong time can cause complications.

Besides medication and alcoholism, work schedules can alter the SCN's rhythm.

"People working shift jobs, often our most important jobs like pilots, surgeons and people working nuclear reactors, throw off their SCN by sleeping at odd times. And they often work for one week then have a couple weeks off, which really messes with their clock."

Those who work shifts are more susceptible to ulcers because they eat when their SCN is telling their digestive system to rest. They get insomnia and experience increased stress because they're fighting their natural impulses.

To help people on shift schedules, Prosser said others are working on ways to artificially shift the SCN's rhythm. Other labs working in collaboration with Prosser are testing animals to see if they can mitigate the negative effects of fighting the SCN.

While these experiments are promising, those that can avoid overcooking their bagel bites would be wise to do so.

"Mice that have their SCN destroyed don't die," Prosser said. "They wake up every few hours to eat or use the bathroom or do whatever, then they go back to sleep. They're healthy and happy. But they just can't regulate the timing of their activity and inactivity."