Decreasing Human Body Temperature in the United States Since the Industrial Revolution

Protsiv, Myroslava; Ley, Catherine; Lankester, Joanna; Hastie, Trevor; Parsonnet, Julie

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3391186

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The next question that arises is whether a higher body temperature was feasible in the past. A very recent study concluded that the body temperature of humans has decreased (in a linear fashion) by 0.6 • C in the past ∼ 150 years [75]. The fact that this marked change in the temperature purportedly occurred over a relatively short timescale suggests that hominins may have possessed higher body temperatures with respect to present-day humans.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of body temperature in regulating brain and body sizes in hominin evolution

Lingam

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A number of models have posited that the concomitant evolution of large brains and increased body sizes in hominins was constrained by metabolic costs. In such studies, the impact of body temperature has not been sufficiently addressed despite the well-established fact that the rates of most physiological processes are manifestly temperature-dependent. Hence, the role of body temperature in modulating the number of neurons and body size is investigated in this work by means of a simple quantitative model. It is determined that modest deviations in the body temperature (i.e., by a few degrees Celsius) might bring about substantive changes in brain and body parameters. In particular, a higher body temperature might prove amenable to an increase in the number of neurons, a higher brain-to-body mass ratio and fewer hours expended on feeding activities, while the converse applies when the temperature is lowered. It is therefore argued that future studies must endeavour to explore and incorporate the effects of body temperature in metabolic theories of hominin evolution, while also accounting for other factors such as foraging efficiency, diet and fire control in tandem. * Electronic address: mlingam@fit.edu 1 It is, however, important to recognize that large brains are not necessarily better due to the fact that additional factors such as "modularity and interconnectivity" [4] also determine several aspects of cognition [5,6].

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of body temperature in regulating brain and body sizes in hominin evolution

Lingam

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Women on oral-contraceptives had a PDR peak frequency more similar to women in the follicular phase than in the luteal phase consistent with this ( Brötzner et al, 2014 ). Differences in body temperature has been suggested as an explanation ( Stephani et al, 2019 ) since EEG alpha frequencies become faster with higher temperature ( Deboer, 1998 ) and there is evidence from large cohorts that women have slightly higher body temperature than men ( Protsiv et al, 2020 ). The relationship with temperature is unlikely to be causally driving the difference in PDR.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fully automatic peak frequency estimation of the posterior dominant rhythm in a large retrospective hospital EEG cohort

Zibrandtsen

Kjær

2021

Clinical Neurophysiology Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Alternatively, a preferred host species may vary in normal body temperature, in accordance with the endozoan small mammal reservoir hypothesis proposed by Barker and Taylor [ 85 ]. Interestingly, a decline in mean human body temperature (~1.6%) has recently been reported [ 86 ]. Whether this impacts coccidioidomycosis rates is unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Thermotolerance Adaptation between Species of Coccidioides

Mead

Hamm

Shaffer

et al. 2020

JoF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coccidioidomycosis, or Valley fever, is caused by two species of dimorphic fungi. Based on molecular phylogenetic evidence, the genus Coccidioides contains two reciprocally monophyletic species: C. immitis and C. posadasii. However, phenotypic variation between species has not been deeply investigated. We therefore explored differences in growth rate under various conditions. A collection of 39 C. posadasii and 46 C. immitis isolates, representing the full geographical range of the two species, was screened for mycelial growth rate at 37 °C and 28 °C on solid media. The radial growth rate was measured for 16 days on yeast extract agar. A linear mixed effect model was used to compare the growth rate of C. posadasii and C. immitis at 37 °C and 28 °C, respectively. C. posadasii grew significantly faster at 37 °C, when compared to C. immitis; whereas both species had similar growth rates at 28 °C. These results indicate thermotolerance differs between these two species. As the ecological niche has not been well-described for Coccidioides spp., and disease variability between species has not been shown, the evolutionary pressure underlying the adaptation is unclear. However, this research reveals the first significant phenotypic difference between the two species that directly applies to ecological research.

show abstract

Decreasing Human Body Temperature in the United States Since the Industrial Revolution

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

The role of body temperature in regulating brain and body sizes in hominin evolution

The role of body temperature in regulating brain and body sizes in hominin evolution

Fully automatic peak frequency estimation of the posterior dominant rhythm in a large retrospective hospital EEG cohort

Differential Thermotolerance Adaptation between Species of Coccidioides

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About