Common Panic Response Can Desensitize Body to Temperature Changes - Neuroscience News

When we encounter unexpected stressors in daily life, such as acute pain or fear, a common response is to begin breathing rapidly.

This response, called hyperventilation, often involves breathing more quickly than the body really needs in order to deal with the perceived threat or danger.

This response, called hyperventilation, often involves breathing more quickly than the body really needs in order to deal with the perceived threat or danger.

The findings from this study suggest that hypocapnia may be a mechanism by which hyperventilation reduces sensitivity to stress, while paradoxically dampening thermoregulatory behavior in severe hot and cold environments, which may contribute to heat stroke and accidental hypothermia.

Hypocapnia attenuates local skin thermal perception to innocuous warm and cool stimuli in normothermic resting humans

This study examined the effects of voluntary hyperventilation and resultant hypocapnia on the local skin thermal detection threshold in normothermic resting humans.