Effect of dehydration on hypothalamic control of evaporation in the cat

1. Cats were surgically prepared with intracranial thermodes for heating of the hypothalamic thermosensitive area or with venous cannulae for measurement of blood volume and plasma osmolality. They were kept in an environmental chamber in which the ambient temperature was cycled between 25 and 38 degrees C on an 18:6 hr diurnal schedule. 2. Measurements of blood volume and plasma osmolality and of the evaporative response to hypothalamic heating were made during the 38 degrees C phase of the diurnal temperature cycle in animals when they were hydrated ad lib and in the same animals after 72--96 hr of water deprivation. 3. Water deprivation produced a loss of 10% of the body weight, a significant rise in plasma osmolality and a significant fall in blood volume. 4. Hypothalamic heating in hydrated animals generated a highly significant, positive, linear relationship between hypothalamic temperature and evaporative heat loss in every case. 5. In dehydrated animals, the evaporative response to hypothalamic heating was reduced. Rates of evaporation at a given hypothalamic temperature were lower and the slopes of the lines relating evaporative heat loss to hypothalamic temperature were significantly reduced. 6. It is concluded that dehydration reduces the thermal responsiveness of central neural structures controlling evaporation in the cat.