Summary
Thermoregulation during fever is generally described in terms of a change in the level of the reference signal in the control system. This paper presents an alternative postulate, namely that during fever the thermoregulatory control centre undergoes a pyrogen-induced change in sensitivity, or gain. This postulate is supported strongly by the behaviour of thermoregulatory neurones. Febrile and afebrile thermoregulation can be described by means of a model with no reference signal at all, but with opposing warm and cold stimuli to the control centre.
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Based on an address to the South African Association of Physicists in Medicine and Biology, Karl Bremer Hospital, January 1970.
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Mitchell, D., Snellen, J.W. & Atkins, A.R. Thermoregulation during fever: Change of set-point or change of gain. Pflugers Arch. 321, 293–302 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00588644
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00588644