Thermoception

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In physiology, thermoception or thermoreception is the sensation and perception of temperature, or more accurately, temperature differences inferred from heat flux. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a temperature stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal in order to trigger an appropriate defense response.

Thermoception in larger animals is mainly done in the skin;

Vertebrates have at least two types of sensor: those that detect heat and those that detect cold.[4]

In animals

Positions of the pit organs (arrowed in red) on a python, relative to its nostril (black arrow)

In snakes

A particularly

Crotalinae (pit viper) and Boidae (boa) snakes, which can effectively see the infrared radiation emitted by hot objects.[5]
The snakes' face has a pair of holes, or pits, lined with temperature sensors. The sensors indirectly detect infrared radiation by its heating effect on the skin inside the pit. They can work out which part of the pit is hottest, and therefore the direction of the heat source, which could be a warm-blooded prey animal. By combining information from both pits, the snake can also estimate the distance of the object.

In bats and other mammals

The

horses, wild mammals) within a range of about 10 to 15 cm. This infrared perception
is possibly used in detecting regions of maximal blood flow on targeted prey.

A 2020 paper

rhinaria
(noses).

In insects

Other animals with specialized heat detectors are forest fire seeking beetles (

conifers freshly killed by forest fires. Darkly pigmented butterflies Pachliopta aristolochiae and Troides rhadamantus use specialized heat detectors to avoid damage while basking. The blood sucking bugs Triatoma infestans
may also have a specialised thermoception organ.

In humans

In humans, temperature sensation from

dorsal horn. The axons of these second order neurons then decussate, joining the spinothalamic tract as they ascend to neurons in the ventral posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus
. A study in 2017 shows that the thermosensory information passes to the lateral parabrachial nucleus rather than to the thalamus and this drives thermoregulatory behaviour.[9][10]

Nobel Prize 2021

The

La Jolla, California, USA) "for their discovery of receptors for temperature and touch".[2][3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b The TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors play key roles in the perception of heat and cold.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ "Can You Feel The Heat? Your Cilia Can". 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  2. ^ a b The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet (4 Oct 2021) Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021: David Julius, and Ardem Patapoutian
  3. ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine" (PDF). Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  4. ^ Johnson, JI (2008). Kaas, JH; Gardner, EP (eds.). 6.16 Specialized Somatosensory Systems. Vol. 6: Somatosensation. Elsevier. 6.16.2 Thermal Sensory Systems, pp. 332-335. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. ^ E. A. Newman, P. H. Hartline (1982). The Infrared ‘vision’ of snakes. Scientific American 20:116-127.
  6. ^ L. Kürten, U. Schmidt, K. Schäfer (1984): Warm and Cold Receptors in the Nose of the Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotundus. Naturwissenschaften 71:327-28.
  7. ^ E. O. Gracheva, J. F. Codero-Morales, J. A. González-Carcaía, N. T. Ingolia, C. Manno, C. I. Aranguren, J. S. Weissman, D. Julius (2011). Ganglion-specific splicing of TRPV1 underlies infrared sensation in vampire bats. Nature 476:88-91.
  8. ^ Bálint, A., Andics, A., Gácsi, M. et al. Dogs can sense weak thermal radiation. Sci Rep 10, 3736 (2020).[1]
  9. PMID 29279428
    .
  10. .

External links