Low-latitude environmental regularity sustains non-photicentrainment in blind adults
The light-dark cycle shaped by Earths rotation provided the evolutionary conditions under which circadian rhythms emerged. Consistent with this, previous studies indicate that less than 40% of total blind individuals, who lack photic input, entrain to the 24-h cycle, further evidencing the critical role of light as the dominant zeitgeber for circadian alignment. However, this assumption has been tested almost exclusively in temperate, high-latitude regions, where environmental cues vary seasonally. Near the equator, by contrast, photoperiod and temperature cycles remain exceptionally stable. This highlights a fundamental gap: can circadian rhythms in humans remain synchronised without light when environmental temporal cues are highly regular? We addressed this question in 58 blind adults (21-77 years; 43.1% female) living near the equator in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil ([~]5{degrees}S), who wore wrist actigraphy continuously for four weeks. Light sensitivity was assessed through the pupillary light reflex (PLR; 22 PLR-reactive, 36 non-reactive). Applying a semi-supervised machine learning approach to uncover multidimensional patterns without prior categorisation, we identified two distinct phenotypes: a Higher Circadian Stability (HCS; 72%, n = 42) and a Lower Circadian Stability group (LCS; 28%, n = 16). Notably, 64% of PLR-non-reactive individuals (23 of 36) were classified within the HCS group, a proportion approximately 1.6 times higher than previously reported for blind cohorts. These findings demonstrate that, under exceptionally regular equatorial conditions, non-photic cues can sustain a robust circadian entrainment even in the absence of photic input. We propose that environmental regularity promotes the synergy of non-photic timing signals, underscoring ecological context as a key determinant of human circadian temporal organisation.