Abstract des Autors

This chapter presents an overview of the general principles of human thermoregulation at the systems level (i.e. the level of architecture and organization) as well as the relevant afferent and efferent thermoeffector pathways in the central and peripheral nervous systems. It focuses primarily on systems and pathways related to autonomic (i.e. involuntary) and behavioural (i.e. voluntary) thermoregulation. These are two entirely different branches of the human thermoregulatory system, sharing the same sensors for detecting changes in thermal homeostasis but having discrete pathways for afferent and efferent information relay, as well as for central (i.e., brain) information processing. The chapter also presents in detail the four major architectural concepts of human thermoregulation that have been proposed since the 1960s and discusses the advantages and limitations of each one for explaining the various phenomena of human thermoregulation.