Using a radiometric apparatus to measure skin temperature while heating and cooling the skin surface, it was found that in the skin temperature range from 35° to 37°C reports of temperature sensation were best correlated with rate of chance in skin temperature. The threshold for warmth sensation was found to be an increasing skin temperature change rate of between 0.001° to 0.002°C per second; for cold sensation, a decreasing rate of between 0.005° and 0.006°C per second evoked threshold sensation. When the skin temperature did not change, sensation reports tended to be repetitions of immediately preceding reports. Rapid fluctuations in skin temperature were not accompanied by temperature sensations which could be ascribed to the" fluctuations themselves.
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