Selective brain cooling and thermoregulatory set-point.

During heat stress, the function of selective brain cooling puts trunk core temperature in an open-loop situation. As a result, trunk core temperature deviates more than expected, while brain temperature remains lower than trunk temperature. Such an influence of selective brain cooling might explain why the set-point for temperature regulation was considered to be reset at higher values in various circumstances. In the present article it is argued that during muscular exercise and dehydration the set-point is not raised when core temperature is recorded on the tympanic membrane. During fever the set-point is raised less than would be expected from readings of rectal temperature. Data from experiments on humans are used to support and illustrate the claims.