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Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 283: R1370-R1377, 2002. First published August 15, 2002; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00205.2002
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Vol. 283, Issue 6, R1370-R1377, December 2002

Relationship between alertness, performance, and body temperature in humans

Kenneth P. Wright Jr., Joseph T. Hull, and Charles A. Czeisler

Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Body temperature has been reported to influence human performance. Performance is reported to be better when body temperature is high/near its circadian peak and worse when body temperature is low/near its circadian minimum. We assessed whether this relationship between performance and body temperature reflects the regulation of both the internal biological timekeeping system and/or the influence of body temperature on performance independent of circadian phase. Fourteen subjects participated in a forced desynchrony protocol allowing assessment of the relationship between body temperature and performance while controlling for circadian phase and hours awake. Most neurobehavioral measures varied as a function of internal biological time and duration of wakefulness. A number of performance measures were better when body temperature was elevated, including working memory, subjective alertness, visual attention, and the slowest 10% of reaction times. These findings demonstrate that an increased body temperature, associated with and independent of internal biological time, is correlated with improved performance and alertness. These results support the hypothesis that body temperature modulates neurobehavioral function in humans.

sleep homeostasis; circadian phase; neurobehavioral performance; forced desynchrony; core body temperature


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