GLOSSARY

Body temperature regulation (thermoregulation) is the process by which the hypothalamus keeps core body temperature within a narrow range of about 36.5–37.5 °C by controlling heat production and heat loss.

Control Centre

The preoptic area of the hypothalamus, the body’s “thermostat”, integrates information from skin and central thermoreceptors and adjusts the responses.

Heat-Loss Mechanisms

• Skin vasodilation: brings warm blood to the surface.
• Sweating: evaporation of sweat, the most important mechanism in exercise and hot weather (each litre of evaporated sweat removes about 580 kilocalories of heat).
• Conduction, convection, and radiation.

Heat-Conservation and Heat-Production Mechanisms

Skin vasoconstriction, shivering, non-shivering thermogenesis (brown fat), and behaviour (putting on clothing, seeking shelter).