Human thermoregulation is a complex, integrative, and ultimately autonomic physiological
phenomenon. The goal of this special issue of Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical is to give clinicians and scientists a set of brief updates regarding integrative
physiological mechanisms of thermoregulation relevant to humans. In terms of physiological
thermoregulation, three general categories of environments exist: cold, thermoneutral
and warm/hot. In cold environments, thermoregulatory responses are oriented towards
conservation of heat (cutaneous vasoconstriction) and heat generation (shivering and
non-shivering thermogenesis) (
Castellani and Young, 2016
,
Morrison and Madden, 2014
). In thermoneutral environments, by definition, very little active regulation of
body temperature is required, as heat production equals heat dissipation and body
temperature remains relatively constant. In humans, the minor adjustments in heat
dissipation required in such environments are accomplished by small changes in skin
blood flow (
Savage and Brengelmann, 1996
). In warm or hot environments, the emphasis is on heat dissipation, which occurs
by two major mechanisms, cutaneous vasodilation (in which increased skin blood flow
increases convective heat transfer from the core to the periphery) and sweating (in
which evaporative heat loss cools the skin and increases heat transfer from the surface
of the skin to the environment) (
Charkoudian, 2010
,
Johnson et al., 2014
,
Smith and Johnson, 2016
).Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and ClinicalAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Human physiological responses to cold exposure: Acute responses and acclimatization to prolonged exposure.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 63-74
- Mechanisms and modifiers of reflex induced cutaneous vasodilation and vasoconstriction in humans.J. Appl. Physiol. 2010; 109: 1221-1228
- Sex hormone effects on autonomic mechanisms of thermoregulation in humans.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 75-80
- Thermoregulatory disorders and illness related to heat and cold stress.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 91-104
- Thermoregulatory sweating abnormalities in diabetes mellitus.Mayo Clin. Proc. 1989; 64: 617-628
- Sympathetic regulation during thermal stress in human aging and disease.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 81-90
- Cutaneous vasodilator and vasoconstrictor mechanisms in temperature regulation.Compr. Physiol. 2014; 4: 33-89
- Physiological adjustments to hypohydration: Impact on thermoregulation.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 47-51
- Central neural control of thermoregulation and brown adipose tissue.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 14-24
- Central nervous system regulation of brown adipose tissue.Compr. Physiol. 2014; 4: 1677-1713
- Cardiovascular adaptations supporting human exercise-heat acclimation.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 52-62
- Control of skin blood flow in the neutral zone of human body temperature regulation.J. Appl. Physiol. 1996; 80: 1249-1257
- Mechanisms of orthostatic intolerance during heat stress.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 37-46
- Responses to hyperthermia. Optimizing heat dissipation by convection and evaporation: Neural control of skin blood flow and sweating in humans.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 25-36
- Biophysical aspects of human thermoregulation during heat stress.Auton. Neurosci. Basic Clin. 2016; 196: 3-13
Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 21, 2016
Accepted:
February 12,
2016
Received:
February 11,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
