Core Body Temperature Negatively Correlates with Whole-Brain Gray Matter Volume: A Pilot Study in the Context of Global Warming

Global warming has been associated with various adverse effects on human physiology, yet its potential impact on brain structure remains largely unexplored. The present pilot study investigated the relationship between core body temperature and whole-brain gray matter volume (GMV) in healthy adults. Twenty-seven participants (19 males and 8 females; mean age = 38.6 ± 10.3 years) underwent MRI scanning and core temperature assessment. Correlation and partial correlation analyses were performed to examine the association between core body temperature and GMV, controlling for sex and age. The results revealed a significant negative correlation between core body temperature and whole-brain GMV (r = −0.496, p = 0.009), which remained marginally significant after adjusting for covariates (r = −0.338, p = 0.099). These findings suggest that even subtle variations in body temperature within the normal physiological range may be linked to differences in global brain structure. Possible underlying mechanisms include heat-induced inflammation, oxidative stress, and increased metabolic load on neural tissue. In the context of ongoing global warming, elucidating how body temperature relates to brain morphology may provide crucial insight into the neural health consequences of rising environmental temperatures. This study offers an initial step toward integrating environmental and neuroscientific perspectives, emphasizing the importance of temperature regulation as a factor influencing brain integrity in daily life.