About this Research Topic
In recent years, with the intensification of global warming, extreme heat has occurred frequently, causing serious economic losses to countries around the world, as well as serious damage to people's physical and mental health, which has received extensive attention from many researchers. Extreme ambient temperatures bring about changes in the functions of the digestive system, immune system, reproductive system and so on, and have a significant impact on the central nervous system. Extreme temperatures are important risk factors, causing significant impairments to high-level cognitive functions (such as attention, memory, executive control, emotion, etc.), especially for heat-exposed occupations (e.g., manufacturing workshop, coal mines, military operation, firefighting and outdoor sports, etc.). On the other hand, animals also exhibit a series of abnormal innate behaviors, such as food and water intake, and autonomic thermoregulation in extreme high or low temperature environments. The negative influences of extreme thermal exposure on energy homeostasis-related innate behavior behaviors are common in warm-blooded animals such as birds, rodents, and primates.
Although ambient temperatures bring about significantly disrupted cognitive and innate behaviors, the underlying neural mechanisms remain lacking. Converging scale and behavioral tests have revealed impaired cognitive performance under heat or cold stress. However, the lack of electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence makes it difficult to accurately locate the target areas and neural circuits underlying the disrupted cognitive performances. Regarding innate behaviors under extreme thermal exposures, current research has focused on the neural activity directly related to temperature changes such as autonomic thermoregulation and energy homeostasis, while other closely related innate behaviors such as eating, drinking, behavioral thermoregulation (e.g., cold and heat defensive behaviors), and even sleep are not fully understood.
To address the above issues, this Research Topic welcomes submissions describing the neural mechanisms of cognitive behaviors and innate behaviors under thermal stresses (e.g., cold or heat stress), including but not limited to the following:
• Neural mechanism for high-level cognitive functions of humans (e.g., attention, memory) under extreme thermal stresses;
• Neural circuitry mechanism for innate behaviors (e.g., feeding, drinking, behavioral thermoregulation and sleep) under extreme thermal stresses;
• Neural mechanism for pathological fever-related innate behavior abnormality (e.g., inflammation-associated anorexia);
• Neural mechanism for homeostasis (e.g., thermal homeostasis, energy homeostasis, fluid homeostasis, etc.) under extreme thermal stresses.
Although ambient temperatures bring about significantly disrupted cognitive and innate behaviors, the underlying neural mechanisms remain lacking. Converging scale and behavioral tests have revealed impaired cognitive performance under heat or cold stress. However, the lack of electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence makes it difficult to accurately locate the target areas and neural circuits underlying the disrupted cognitive performances. Regarding innate behaviors under extreme thermal exposures, current research has focused on the neural activity directly related to temperature changes such as autonomic thermoregulation and energy homeostasis, while other closely related innate behaviors such as eating, drinking, behavioral thermoregulation (e.g., cold and heat defensive behaviors), and even sleep are not fully understood.
To address the above issues, this Research Topic welcomes submissions describing the neural mechanisms of cognitive behaviors and innate behaviors under thermal stresses (e.g., cold or heat stress), including but not limited to the following:
• Neural mechanism for high-level cognitive functions of humans (e.g., attention, memory) under extreme thermal stresses;
• Neural circuitry mechanism for innate behaviors (e.g., feeding, drinking, behavioral thermoregulation and sleep) under extreme thermal stresses;
• Neural mechanism for pathological fever-related innate behavior abnormality (e.g., inflammation-associated anorexia);
• Neural mechanism for homeostasis (e.g., thermal homeostasis, energy homeostasis, fluid homeostasis, etc.) under extreme thermal stresses.
Keywords: heat stress, cold stress, thermal exposure, cognitive performance, innate behavior, thermoregulation, homeostasis
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
