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Relationship between alertness, performance, and body temperature in humans.

Kenneth P Wright1, Joseph T Hull, Charles A Czeisler

  • 1Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. kenneth.wright@colorado.edu

American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology
|October 22, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Higher body temperature, independent of circadian rhythms, improves human performance and alertness. This study shows elevated core body temperature enhances cognitive functions like working memory and attention.

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Area of Science:

  • Human physiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Chronobiology

Background:

  • Human performance fluctuates with body temperature, generally improving near its circadian peak.
  • The exact relationship between body temperature, circadian phase, and performance requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if body temperature influences performance independently of circadian phase.
  • To assess the role of internal biological timekeeping in the body temperature-performance relationship.

Main Methods:

  • A forced desynchrony protocol was used with 14 subjects.
  • Controlled for circadian phase and hours awake to isolate body temperature effects.
  • Assessed various neurobehavioral measures and performance metrics.
Keywords:
NASA Discipline Regulatory PhysiologyNon-NASA Center

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Neurobehavioral measures varied with internal biological time and wakefulness duration.
  • Working memory, subjective alertness, visual attention, and reaction times improved with elevated body temperature.
  • These improvements were observed independently of circadian phase.

Conclusions:

  • Elevated body temperature is correlated with enhanced neurobehavioral function and alertness.
  • Body temperature independently modulates human performance, supporting its role in regulating cognitive function.