Effect of transient temperature on thermoreceptor response and thermal sensation

This work investigates the dynamic response of cutaneous thermoreceptors (TRs) under various environmental conditions. The model consists of an electrical submodel and a Pennes bioheat transfer submodel. The electrical submodel assumes that the response of the cutaneous TRs has a static and dynamic part, in which the static one is proportional to the temperature and the dynamic part proportional to the temperature change rate. A one-dimensional multi-layer model is presented to model the heat exchange between the skin and the ambient medium. Then the temperature of the TRs and the necessary parameters of the electrical submodel are predicted using a finite difference method. Approaches proposed in this paper can help identify the difference of the warm and cold TRs under the same environmental conditions. This difference may be the real mechanism that people are more sensitive to cold stimuli than warm stimuli. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.