Thermoreception and Temperature Regulation

This authoritative update provides the necessary background for both clinically- and activity- (sports and industry) applied aspects of thermal physiology. It ranges from the transduction of heat (or temperature) into afferent neural signals, including their organization and projection, to such matters as conscious perception of heat, the processes of short- and long-term adaptations, and fever. Special sections deal with the nature of the regulator and the integration of temperature regulation with other homeostatic functions, and with the division between behavioral and autonomic responses.

As indicated in the Preface, the contributions to this volume are based upon the papers presented at the symposium on Thermoreceptors and Temperature Regula- tion held in July 1988 at the Institute of Physiology of the University of Marburg (Federal Republic of Germany) to celebrate and commemorate the life and achievements of HERBERT HENSEL, who directed that Institute from 1955 until his death in 1983, and whose most notable and significant contributions to thermo- physiology were in the areas of the properties and characteristics of thermo sensors, mammalian thermoregulation more generally, and the psychophysiology of ther- mal sensation. All the papers in this volume deal, to a greater or lesser extent, with these discernibly different but closely allied aspects of mammalian physiology. The editors have sought to achieve cohesion, flow, and balance both in the contributed articles and in their order of presentation, without either large gaps or redundancies in the coverage of the recent advances in the understanding of thermoreceptors and thermoregulation. At the same time we have sought to avoid such a degree of editorial control as to destroy the individuality of the contributions, and the judgements upon which they were based. We have also sought to look both backwards and forwards, and to include some legitimate extension of the con- sideration of thermosensitivity and thermoregulation into such areas as climatic adaptation and fever. Hence the "greater or lesser" of the closeness of this series of papers to HERBERT HENSEL'S scientific interests.

Contents: Introduction.- Transduction of Temperature into Cellular Responses.- Central Processing of Temperature Information.- Epistemology.- Temperature and Functional Interactions.- Adaptive Modification of Temperature Regulation.- Fever.- Subject Index.