Initiation of sweating in man after abrupt rise in environmental temperature

¹ Aerospace Medical Laboratory, Flight Test Center, Brétigny-sur-Orge, Seine-et-Oise, France

In 38 experiments a total of eight men were subjected, after a long waiting period in a neutral environment, to an abrupt rise in environmental temperature. Skin, rectal, oral, and tympanic temperatures, and weight loss were continuously recorded. Two types of responses were seen: a) nonadapted subjects presented a delay in the onset of sweating, with a good correlation between this onset and rise in rectal or tympanic temperature, but without correlation with rise in skin temperature; b) adapted subjects presented an immediate onset of sweating without correlation with rectal temperature, and a second acceleration of sweating corresponding to the rise of rectal temperature. It is concluded that for nonadapted subjects the mechanism of sweating is activated by centrally located receptors, but that in adapted subjects, skin receptors are able to activate the sweating mechanism before central receptors feed their impulses to the heat loss center.

Submitted on August 17, 1964

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