Temperature receptors in cutaneous nerve endings are thermostat molecules that induce thermoregulatory behaviors against thermal load

Abstract

When skin temperature falls below a set-point, mammals experience “cold in the skin” and exhibit heat-seeking behaviors for error correction. Physiological thermostats should perform the behavioral thermoregulation, and it is important to identify the thermostats. A classical model of the sensory system states that thermoreceptors (e.g., thermoTRPs) in skin nerve endings are sensors that transform temperature into the firing rate codes that are sent to the brain, where the codes are decoded as “cold” by a labeled line theory. However, the view that the temperature code is transformed into “cold” (not temperature) is conflicting. Another model states that a thermostat exists in the brain based on the view that a skin thermo-receptor is a sensor. However, because animals have no knowledge of the principle of temperature measurement, the brain is unable to measure skin temperature with a thermometer calibrated based on a code table of each sensor in the skin. Thus, these old models cannot identify the thermostats. We have proposed a new model in which temperature receptors in a nerve ending are molecules of the thermostats. When skin temperature falls below a set-point, these molecules as a whole induce impulses as command signals sent to the brain, where these impulses activate their target neurons for “cold” and heat-seeking behaviors for error correction. Our study challenges the famous models that sensory receptor is a sensor and the brain is a code processor.