Understanding the control of the behavioral thermal preference

Temperature influences the metabolic rate, changes membrane fluidity and impacts neural activity. Animals including humans therefore developed intricate strategies to limit fluctuations of body- temperature. These include behavioral strategies, such as seeking places of comfortable temperature, which are shared among all animals as well as autonomous means of body-temperature regulation in mammals and birds. Temperature dysregulation on the other hand impacts processes as diverse as sleep and immune function. Recent research revealed how vertebrates sense temperature and how this information is relayed to the brain. Furthermore, cell-types that control aspects of autonomous and behavioral thermoregulation have been identified in conserved brain structures such as the preoptic area. However, our understanding of behavioral thermoregulation is very limited. We do not understand how the behavioral thermal preference is set and adjusted according to physiological needs. We also do not know how vertebrates including humans process temperature stimuli to seek out comfortable temperatures. This lack of fundamental knowledge makes it difficult to understand how temperature dysregulation might arise. To fill this critical gap in our knowledge, we will use the vertebrate larval zebrafish as an animal model. Zebrafish are transparent and we can monitor activity throughout the entire brain using functional calcium imaging. Together with mathematical tools this allows us to predict how the preferred temperature influences thermosensory processing, allowing the animal to thermoregulate. By comparing hot and cold avoidance behaviors together with neural activity we will understand how animals adjust behavior based on whether they move towards their preference or away from it. This is a critical component of seeking out a preferred temperature. By directly modulating the preferred temperature through inflammatory signals, we will test how the brain encodes and modulates the preference an animal seeks. Using ablations to manipulate circuit activity we will test our models and gain mechanistic insight into the establishment of the preference. This research will yield fundamental principles of how a vertebrate brain sets and modulates the thermal preference. This knowledge will be fundamental in understanding homeostatic dysregulation. Project Number: 1R01NS148272-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) | Principal Investigator: Martin Haesemeyer | Institution: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, Columbus, OH | Award Amount: $481,765 | Activity Code: R01 | Study Section: Sensory-Motor Neuroscience Study Section[SMN] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11340119