Does Plastic Foundation Help or Inhibit Colony Maintaining Winter Brood Nest Temp?

Is there any Data from the scientific beekeeping community on whether plastic foundation helps or inhibits a colony from mainting their proper winter brood nest temperature? Is anyone aware of research on this?

I'm not a scientist, but i think the plastic foundation will obtain and maintain a colder temp. in the hive than wax.

Lots and lots of details omitted, but the absolute basics of heat transfer are related to the thermal conductivity of the two materials, in this case bees wax (with or without wires - you didn't specify) vs the plastic. You would need to know exactly what plastic is used in the frames as well as the thermal conductivity of bees wax for the given foundation type. I couldn't find any info on thermal conductivity of bees wax, but didn't look too hard either. However, paraffin wax has a thermal conductivity 0.25 (W/m.K), which may be very different than real bees wax. High density polyethylene plastic (again, not sure if this is the plastic used in Pierco-style frames) has a thermal conductivity 0.50 (W/m.K). This implies that high density polyethylene plastic is twice as conductive as paraffin wax, which means that the plastic would be more efficient at transmitting heat and cold upon being exposed to positive and negative heat gradients, respectively. Of course this is an ultra-simplistic assessment considering only thermal conductivity, ignoring many real world variables, and based upon (very likely) bogus material assumptions.

And don't forget whether there is honey in the comb or not. I would guess honey has a higher thermal conductivity then wax and plastic.