I thought this might be of interest.

Peter

===================

The Hot Brain
Survival, Temperature, and the Human Body
Carl V. Gisolfi and Francisco Mora
http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/GISHHS00

From the first unicellular life on Earth, living things have
had the capacity to sense heat and cold and to avoid extreme
temperatures. With the development of a bigger brain and a
constant body temperature, mammals were able to change their
habitats. The interplay between behavior, body temperature,
and ambient temperature may have played a crucial role in
human evolution. In this book Carl Gisolfi and Francisco
Mora tell the evolutionary story of the brain and
thermoregulation, with an emphasis on modern humans.

The book first traces the story of the brain throughout
evolution and shows how the control of body temperature as
a survival mechanism was achieved. It then goes on to discuss
the mechanisms of our environmental independence, why a body
temperature of 37 ° C (only five degrees from death) is
essential for humans and how this narrow temperature range is
defended. It describes how we cope with environmental extremes,
the function of fevers, and why thermoregulation is best
understood through a combination of physiological and cognitive
approaches. It also addresses such questions as "Can we cool
the brain?" and "Is the elevation in brain temperature (a hot
brain) the reason we stop exercising?"

Carl V. Gisolfi is Professor of Exercise Science and Physiology
and Biophysics at the University of Iowa. Francisco Mora is
Professor and Director of the Department of Human Physiology
at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and Adjunct Professor of
Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa.

6 x 9, 288 pp., 94 illus., cloth ISBN 0-262-07198-3
A Bradford Book