Abstract
Athletic animals must keep their brains cool during exertion because this organ can be damaged irreversibly by hyperthermia. But how horses do this has remained a mystery, as they don't appear to have thermoregulatory dervices like those found in other animals. They do, however, have a unique anatomical arrangement of their internal carotid arteries, which supply blood to the brain: these are enveloped by a pair of air-filled guttural pouches. Here we show that horses use their guttural pouches to cool these important arteries during exercise, keeping the brain from overheating.
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Baptiste, K., Naylor, J., Bailey, J. et al. A function for guttural pouches in the horse. Nature 403, 382–383 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35000284
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35000284
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