When confined to novel running wheels or when given injections of tria
zolam in their home cages, old hamsters do not become as active as you
ng hamsters. Therefore, lack of nonphotic phase shifting following suc
h manipulations may stem from insufficient activity or arousal. Phase
advances can be obtained in some 10-month-old animals when wheel runni
ng during the pulse is increased by the presence of females in estrous
condition and in most 18-month-old hamsters by combining confinement
to a novel wheel with triazolam injections. These data suggest that th
ere is relatively little if anything wrong in aging hamsters with the
nonphotic phase-shifting mechanism itself. The reason why in certain s
ituations old hamsters do not shift appears to be because the nonphoti
c inputs to these shifting mechanisms are not strong enough. However,
when running in novel wheels is increased by carrying out the tests at
cold temperatures, most old animals did not show subsequent phase shi
fts. Evidently it is not running per se that is critical for phase shi
fts, but probably the motivational context for such running.