Physiological and psychological model of local thermal sensation under local cooling

Local thermal sensations of all body parts were studied in neutral-warm room while face, chest and back were each exposed to local cooling air. Dressed in shorts, 30 randomly selected male subjects were exposed to each condition for 30 minutes. During the exposure, local thermal sensation of each body part was reported by subjects on voting scales at regular intervals and their skin temperatures on forehead, cheek, chest and back were recorder continuously. Thermal sensations of the cooling body parts changed with their skin temperature and two kinds of physiological models were obtained for face, chest and back separately. Thermal sensations of the uncooled body parts changed with local cooling while their skin temperature was kept unchanged, and a psychological model were established to describe the effect of local thermal sensations between body parts. Face thermal sensation has bigger impact on thermal sensation of the rest of the body.