Summary
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1.
Brain (hypothalamic) and colonic temperatures were measured in twenty adult pigeons (Columba livia) whose mean body mass was 0.377 kg.
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2.
In contrals, in sham operated birds, and in those pigeons in which one or both external ophthalmic arteries were occluded brain temperatures were always about 1°C (0.94 to 1.03) below body temperature (Fig. 2) over a range of air temperatures.
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3.
In pigeons in which arterial flow to theretia was totally blocked, the normal pattern of body-to-brain temperature difference wasreversed, such that brain temperature was always higher than body temperature by a mean of 0.36 °C (Fig. 2, Table 1).
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4.
Therete mirabile ophthalmicum of pigeons plays a central role in the maintenance of the body-to-brain temperature difference which may be important in avoiding brain damage during core hyperthermia.
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Kilgore, D.L., Boggs, D.F. & Birchard, G.F. Role of theRete mirabile ophthalmicum in maintaining the body-to-brain temperature difference in pigeons. J Comp Physiol B 129, 119–122 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00798175
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00798175