This review analyses whether skin temperature represents ambient temperature and serves as a feedforward signal for the thermoregulation system, or whether it is one of the body's temperatures and provides feedback. The body is covered mostly by hairy (non-glabrous) skin, which is typically insulated from the environment (with clothes in humans and with fur in non-human mammals). Thermal signal...

Cooper, K. E. Some historical perspectives on thermoregulation. J Appl Physiol 92: 1717–1724, 2002; 10.1152/japplphysiol.01051.2001.—In this paper, selected historical aspects of thermoregulation and fever are presented as background to the application of molecular biology to thermoregulation. Temperature-sensing mechanisms, coordination of thermal information, thermoregulatory circuitry, effer...

The León rock lizard, Iberolacerta galani, lives in isolated mountains of Spain. We studied the seasonal changes in the thermal biology of I. galani between spring and summer. We calculated precision, accuracy and effectiveness of thermoregulation and the habitat thermal quality for spring, and compared with the values of summer. In addition, we studied how the shift in the thermal preferences ...

Tansey EA, Johnson CD. Recent advances in thermoregulation. Adv Physiol Educ 39: 139–148, 2015; doi:10.1152/advan.00126.2014.—Thermoregulation is the maintenance of a relatively constant core body temperature. Humans normally maintain a body temperature at 37°C, and maintenance of this relatively high temperature is critical to human survival. This concept is so important that control of thermo...

In winter, foraging activity is intended to optimize food search while minimizing both thermoregulation costs and predation risk. Here we quantify the relative importance of thermoregulation and predation in foraging patch selection of woodland birds wintering in a Mediterranean montane forest. Specifically, we account for thermoregulation benefits related to temperature, and predation risk ass...

The psychrotolerant bacterium Pectobacterium atrosepticum produces four N-acyl homoserine lactones under a wide range of temperatures. Their thermoregulation differs from that of the exoenzyme production, described as being under quorum-sensing control. A mechanism involved in this thermoregulation consists of controlling N-acyl homoserine lactones synthase production at a transcriptional level.

The ontogeny of thermoregulation differs among (avian) species, but in all species both neural and endocrinological processes are involved. In this review the neural processes in ontogeny of thermoregulation during the prenatal and early postnatal phase are discussed. Only in a few avian species (chicken, ducklings) the ontogeny of some important neural structures are described. In the early po...

In summer, many temperate bat species use daytime torpor, but breeding females do so less to avoid interferences with reproduction. In forest-roosting bats, deep tree cavities buffer roost microclimate from abrupt temperature oscillations and facilitate thermoregulation. Forest bats also switch roosts frequently, so thermally suitable cavities may be limiting. We tested how barbastelle bats (Ba...