Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Over the past decade, a high body temperature has become recognized as a direct cause of decreased voluntary exercise capacity and tolerance. However, the mechanism by which body temperature influences exercise capacity remains a major source of debate. One area of research has focused on the effects of temperature on our muscles. Higher body temperature appears to directly reduce the brain's ability to recruit and activate muscles. However, higher muscle temperature by itself or a higher skin temperature can also reduce tolerance to exercise. Therefore, it is important to study how these different temperature inputs combine to affect muscle function. At the same time, temperature changes also affect the amount of blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain and muscles, and the oxygen available to the brain or muscles is a powerful influence on actual muscle function. Thus, in order to understand the actual effects of temperature on muscle function, it becomes important to study what is due to oxygen changes and what is due to temperature. This is the main goal of the proposed research.The themes and primary objectives of the proposed research program include:1. Through manipulating whole-body and local muscle temperature, understanding the relative importance of local and overall body temperature on muscle function and exercise capacity.2. Through manipulating temperature and oxygen availability at the brain and muscles, understanding the separate and combined effects of each on muscle function.