The role of sympathetic efferent activity in the regulation of brain temperature.

The role of nasal heat exchange in the control of brain temperature has been studied in cats, pigs, ducks and rabbits during acute experiments under general anaesthesia. Nasal air flow at physiological rates caused hypothalamic temperature to fall at between 0.2 and 0.5 degrees C/min in cats, pigs and ducks, which all have arterial rete systems that can cool blood flowing to the brain, but not in rabbits, which lack an arterial rete. Bilateral stimulation of cervical sympathetic trunks reduced or abolished the brain cooling effect of nasal air flow in cats, pigs and ducks. After a period of airflow during which brain cooling was reduced by sympathetic stimulation, the end of stimulation was sometimes followed by marked and rapid brain cooling, indicating re-perfusion through ischaemic cooled tissues. Cervical sympathetic stimulation caused a reduction in resistance to nasal airflow in all species studied, by inducing vasoconstriction and shrinkage of the nasal mucosa. In species with well-developed arterial retia, the effect of cervical sympathetic stimulation in regulating nasal cooling of the brain is probably mediated by controlling blood flow through the nasal mucosa. Although this vascular control also occurs in rabbits, they cannot selectively cool the brain and sympathetic stimulation has no effect on rabbit brain temperature.