Thermal sensibility and physiological response of hands worn by gloves with different thermal conductivities in water

摘要

To study thermal sensibility of hands against different water temperatures, the thermal sensibility was discussed in relation to the physiological responses such as finger skin temperature and finger skin blood flow, when dipping both hands worn by gloves with different thermal conductivities or bare hands in water baths. In doing so, a water bath (A- bath) as a standard stimulus was set at a fixed temperature in the range 15～40°C at 2. 5°C interval, while the water bath (B-bath) as a comparison stimulus was heated at 1°C/min in the temperature range of 4°C from the reference temperature of A- bath. The left and right hands were immersed simultaneously in A- and B-baths, respectively. Nine healthy female students were selected as subjects. The lower and upper limens correspond to such feeling responses of the students as "The present temperature of B-bath becomes equal to that of A-bath" and "The present temperature of B-bath becomes higher than that of A-bath", respectively. The interval of uncertainty (IU) against several reference temperatures of A-bath was defined as the temperature difference between upper and lower limens at each reference temperature. The finger skin temperature, finger skin blood flow, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured together with the IU measurements. Through a series of the experiments, it turned out that the physiological responses are sensitive to the wearing of gloves and water temperature, while thermal sensibility given as IU is independent of both of them.