Pflügers Archiv

, Volume 338, Issue 1, pp 31–42 | Cite as

Thermoregulatory responses of the pigeon to changes of the brain and the spinal cord temperatures

  • W. Rautenberg
  • R. Necker
  • B. May
Article
Received:

Summary

  1. 1.

    The thermoregulatory responses of pigeons were tested by selective and combined cooling and heating of thermodes implanted chronically into the brain stem and vertebral canal.

     
  2. 2.

    Under thermoneutral conditions lowering the brain temperature to 36°C did not elicit shivering. Similar stimulations of the spinal cord evoked shivering in each case. Simultaneous temperature changes in same direction (cooling the brain and spinal cord) or in opposite direction (heating the brain and cooling the spinal cord) could not influence the intensity of shivering due to cooling the spinal cord alone. Thermal stimulation of the brain stem did not affect shivering due to environmental cold, whereas this response was intensified by cooling and diminished by heating the spinal cord.

     
  3. 3.

    Selective heating of the brain to 44°C rarely induced panting, whereas heating the spinal cord to 42–43°C resulted generally in polypnea under thermoneutral conditions. Opposite changes at both sites (heating the spinal cord and cooling the brain) inhibited panting due to heating the spinal cord in 3 of 12 cases. Under conditions of environmental heat, persisting thermal panting was often inhibited by cooling the spinal cord, but hardly affected by cooling the brain stem.

     
  4. 4.

    Cooling the brain as well as the spinal cord raised the feathers (piloerection) and lowered the skin temperature of the naked feet (vasoconstriction). Both reactions were affected to about the same extent by stimuli in each of the two parts of CNS.

     
  5. 5.

    The results suggest that the temperature signals generated in the brain stem of the pigeon especially effect piloerection and vasomotor reactions. These responses enable the animals to maintain a constant deep body temperature under mild thermal load. Changes of the spinal cord temperature chiefly drive shivering and panting which avoid hypo- and hyperthermia of birds under stronger thermal stress.

     

Key words

Temperature Regulation Hypothalamic Temperature Spinal Cord Temperature Birds 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1972

Authors and Affiliations

  • W. Rautenberg
    • 1
  • R. Necker
    • 1
  • B. May
    • 1
  1. 1.Abteilung für Biologie der Ruhr-Universität BochumBochumGermany

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