Journal article

Multiple thermoregulatory effectors with independent central controls

RM McAllen, M Tanaka, Y Ootsuka, MJ McKinley

European Journal of Applied Physiology | SPRINGER | Published : 2010

Abstract

This review first considers how mammalian body temperature regulation evolved, and how the brain's responses to thermoregulatory challenges are likely to be organised differently from the way an engineer would design them. This is because thermoregulatory effector mechanisms would have evolved one at a time, with each being superimposed on pre-existing mechanisms. There may be no functional need for the final ensemble of control loops to be coordinated by neural cross-connections: appropriate thermal thresholds would solve the problem sufficiently. Investigations first into thermoregulatory behaviours and later into unconscious thermoregulatory mechanisms (autonomic and shivering) have led i..

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University of Melbourne Researchers