Premium
Regulation of sensory nerve conduction velocity of human bodies responding to annual temperature variations in natural environments
Author(s) -
Li Baizhan,
Du Chenqiu,
Liu Hong,
Yu Wei,
Zheng Jie,
Tan Meilan,
Jin Zhenxing,
Li Wenjie,
Wu Jing,
Chen Lu,
Yao Runming
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12525
Subject(s) - thermoregulation , thermal conduction , human health , sensory system , perception , nerve conduction velocity , biomarker , environmental science , psychology , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , biophysics , audiology , thermodynamics , biology , neuroscience , ecology , medicine , physics , environmental health , biochemistry
The extensive research interests in environmental temperature can be linked to human productivity / performance as well as comfort and health; while the mechanisms of physiological indices responding to temperature variations remain incompletely understood. This study adopted a physiological sensory nerve conduction velocity (SCV) as a temperature‐sensitive biomarker to explore the thermoregulatory mechanisms of human responding to annual temperatures. The measurements of subjects’ SCV (over 600 samples) were conducted in a naturally ventilated environment over all four seasons. The results showed a positive correlation between SCV and annual temperatures and a Boltzmann model was adopted to depict the S‐shaped trend of SCV with operative temperatures from 5°C to 40°C. The SCV increased linearly with operative temperatures from 14.28°C to 20.5°C and responded sensitively for 10.19°C‐24.59°C, while tended to be stable beyond that. The subjects’ thermal sensations were linearly related to SCV, elaborating the relation between human physiological regulations and subjective thermal perception variations. The findings reveal the body SCV regulatory characteristics in different operative temperature intervals, thereby giving a deeper insight into human autonomic thermoregulation and benefiting for built environment designs, meantime minimizing the temperature‐invoked risks to human health and well‐being.