ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show that the neural controls of thermoregulatory reflexes and operants are functionally and neuroanatomically separate and that we can never fully understand thermal homeostasis without understanding its operant aspects. It demonstrates the utility of behavior in interpreting the effects of various drugs on body temperature, in analyzing thermal preferences, and in studying phylogenetic and onto-genetic differences in thermoregulatory functioning. The chapter show how behavior is an invaluable tool in determining, when body temperature changes, whether the change is due to a shift in set point. Frogs and fish also clearly show a thermoregulatory component in their behavior. Thermoregulatory behavior in ectotherms is controlled by a combination of brain and other body temperatures, just as it is in mammals and birds. The thermoregulatory set point is affected by a variety of internal and environmental variables and fluctuates from time to time. Thermoregulation differs in important ways from other regulatory systems.
