Suppression of cognitive function in hyperthermia; from the viewpoint of executive and inhibitive cognitive processing
Open accessAbstract
Climate change has had a widespread impact on humans and natural systems. Heat stroke is a life-threatening condition in severe environments. The execution or inhibition of decision making is critical for survival in a hot environment. We hypothesized that, even with mild heat stress, not only executive processing, but also inhibitory processing may be impaired, and investigated the effectiveness of body cooling approaches on these processes using the Go/No-go task with electroencephalographic event-related potentials. Passive heat stress increased esophageal temperature (Tes) by 1.30 ± 0.24 °C and decreased cerebral perfusion and thermal comfort. Mild heat stress reduced the amplitudes of the Go-P300 component (i.e. execution) and No-go-P300 component (i.e. inhibition). Cerebral perfusion and thermal comfort recovered following face/head cooling, however, the amplitudes of the Go-P300 and No-go-P300 components remained reduced. During whole-body cooling, the amplitude of the Go-P300 component returned to the pre-heat baseline, whereas that of the No-go-P300 component remained reduced. These results suggest that local cooling of the face and head does not restore impaired cognitive processing during mild heat stress, and response inhibition remains impaired despite the return to normothermia.
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Mild passive heating (+1.3 ± 0.2 °C in esophageal temperature) degraded executive function and inhibitory processing abilities during Go/No-go tasks in healthy young adults.
“For instance, a study6 found that mild passive heating (+1.3 ± 0.2 °C in esophageal temperature) degraded executive function and inhibitory processing abilities during Go/No-go tasks in healthy young adults.”
From Influence of habitual physical activity on cognitive performance of healthy young adults after passive heat exposure (2026) · cites this paper as [6]
Earlier studies have found that heat stress exposure results in impairment of executive function.
“This is in contrast with the findings from earlier studies6,8 where heat stress exposure has resulted in the impairment of executive function.”
From Influence of habitual physical activity on cognitive performance of healthy young adults after passive heat exposure (2026) · cites this paper as [6]
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Zhuo, F., Gaurani, R. J., Low, I. C. C., Deshayes, T. A., Lee, J. K. W., Cheung, S. S., Choo, P. L., & Tan, X. R. (2026) · Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness · doi:10.1016/j.jesf.2025.200436 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Shibasaki, M., Namba, M., Oshiro, M., Kakigi, R., & Nakata, H.
- Affiliations
- Nara Women's University (JP)
- National Institute for Physiological Sciences (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Shibasaki, Manabu
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2017-03-07
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 43528-43528
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5353598
- OpenAlex
- W2613532298
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 3.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Nipro
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (15H02889, 15H05361)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Effects of Environmental Stressors on Livestock
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- hyperthermia, heat stress, executive function, response inhibition, P300, go/no-go task, event-related potentials, body cooling, whole-body cooling, cerebral perfusion, thermal comfort, heatstroke, cognitive impairment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Body Temperature, Body Temperature Regulation, Cognition, Head, Hemodynamics, Humans, Male, Reaction Time, Regional Blood Flow, Heat Stress Disorders, Event-Related Potentials, P300, Young Adult
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