Thermoregulatory responses to altering hypothalamic temperature in the harbor seal.

The rostral brainstem of the harbor seal Phoca vitulina was cooled and heated 33-41 degrees C while oxygen consumption and rectal, hypothalamic, flipper and dorsal skin temperatures were measured. These experiments were made on restrained seals at ambient temperatures -15 to 30 degrees C. Cooling the preoptic and hypothalamic (POH) tissue increased oxygen consumption in a way that could be approximated by a linear regression line with slope and threshold temperature at which the metabolic rate was minimal. The slope of the regression line was a function of ambient temperature and rectal temperature. At each ambient temperature, the slope was significantly higher for lower rectal temperature. At all rectal temperatures, the slope was significantly higher for lower ambient temperature. The threshold hypothalamic temperatures did not very consistently or significantly with either rectal temperature or ambient temperature. These results on the harbor seal are explicable by suggesting that the thermal-sensitive and reference neurons in the POH which regulate body temperature are inhibited equally by extrahypothalamic cold transducing neural elements.

Effects of altering rostral brain stem temperature on temperature regulation in the Adelie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae.

In 4 Adelie penguins, thermodes were implanted in the rostral brain stem. Two animals were additionally equipped with spinal canal thermodes. At thermoneutral (+8 to +16 degrees C) and cold (-18 to -22 degrees C) ambient conditions, the effects of hypothalamic heating and cooling on the surface temperature of one flipper (skin blood flow), oxygen consumption (metabolic heat production) and esophageal (core) temperature were observed in the conscious animals.- Heating the rostral brain stem induced heat defence responses: Heat production was reduced in the cold and skin vasodilatation was evoked at thermoneutral ambient conditions. As a rule, core temperature fell during rostral brain stem heating.- Cooling the rostral brain stem did not induce clear-cut cold defence responses. On the contrary, strong cooling at thermo-neutral ambient conditions induced vasodilation in the skin. In the cold, even slight degrees of rostral brain stem cooling decreased metabolic heat production. As a rule, core temperature fell when the rostral brain stem was cooled.- It is concluded from the results that thermosensitive structures in the stimulated section of the rostral brain stem of the Adelie penguin contribute to the central temperature signal input in the range of normal to elevated core temperatures. These hypothalamic warm signals appear to be at least as effective as spinal warm signals in controlling skin blood flow and metabolic heat production. The inhibition of ongoing thermoregulatory effector activity by rostral brain stem cooling suggests positive temperature coefficients of the integrative and/or efferent neurons in the hypothalamic temperature regulation center of the Adelie penguin.