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How stress can cause a fever

Psychological stress can trigger physiological responses, including an increase in body temperature. A neural circuit that underlies this stress-induced heat response has been identified.
  1. Dayu Lin

    1. Dayu Lin is at the Neuroscience institute and Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA.

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You are about to take the stage to speak in front of a large audience. As you wait, your heart starts to pound, your breathing quickens, your blood pressure rises and your palms sweat. These physiological responses are evolutionarily conserved mechanisms to prepare your body to fight against imminent dangers, or to run away quickly. Another key response is an increase in body temperature. Emotional stress can cause this psychogenic fever in many mammalian species, from rodents to humans1,2. What is the neural mechanism that underlies this phenomenon? Writing in Science, Kataoka et al.3 describe a key neural circuit in psychologically induced hyperthermia.

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Nature 580, 189-190 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00873-0

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