Mechanism Interpretation of the Biological Brain Cooling and Its Inspiration on Bionic Engineering

The brain is one of the most important organs in a biological body which can only work in a relatively stable temperature range. However, many environmental factors in biosphere would cause cerebral temperature fluctuations. To sustain and regulate the brain temperature, many mechanisms of biological brain cooling have been evolved, including Selective Brain Cooling (SBC), cooling through surface water evaporation, respiration, behavior response and using special anatomical appendages. This article is dedicated to present a summarization and systematic interpretation on brain cooling strategies developed in animals by classifying and comparatively analyzing each typical biological brain cooling mechanism from the perspective of bio-heat transfer. Meanwhile, inspirations from such cooling in nature were proposed for developing advanced bionic engineering technologies especially with two focuses on therapeutic hypothermia and computer chip cooling areas. It is expected that many innovations can be achieved along this way to find out new cooling methodologies for a wide variety of industrial applications which will be highly efficient, energy saving, flexible or even intelligent.