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Updated: Dec 13, 2025

Short-Duration Hypothermia Induction in Rats using Models for Studies examining Clinical Relevance and Mechanisms
Published on: March 3, 2021
Cortex senses environmental temperature earlier than the hypothalamus in awake rats
Lal Chandra Vishwakarma1, Trina Sengupta2, Ashok Kumar Jaryal1
1Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Abstract:
Simultaneous and direct recording of temperature from the body, hypothalamus, and cortex in animals exposed to acute thermal challenges lack evidence. This study was conducted to assess the usual concept, that brain temperature is rather stable when animals are exposed to different ambient temperatures. In this study, we report the characteristic changes in the body, hypothalamic, and cortical temperature, when the rats were acutely exposed to cold (6 °C) and hot (36 °C) ambient temperature. The results of our study show that the body temperature is robustly regulated while hypothalamic and cortical temperatures vary on challenges to ambient cold (6 °C) and warm (36 °C) exposure in awake rats. The onset of response was observed quickest in the cortex, indicating that the cortical thermal sensing may relay intracranial thermal input to the hypothalamus for the regulation of body temperature within narrow limits. The present findings contradict earlier evidence, which stated that the brain does not participate in thermal sensing.
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