Mäkinen Tiina M
Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, Department of Public Health Sciences and General Practice, FIN-90014, University of Oulu, Finland.
Am J Hum Biol. 2007 Mar-Apr;19(2):155-64. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.20627.
Cold exposure is present to significant amounts in the everyday occupational and leisure time activities of circumpolar residents. A cross-sectional population study demonstrated that Finns reported being exposed to cold on average 4% of their total time. Factors modifying cold exposure are: age, gender, employment, education, health, and amount of physical exercise. Several symptoms and complaints are associated with wintertime cold exposure and start to appear more commonly when temperatures decrease below -10 degrees C. Urban circumpolar people do not evidently demonstrate cold acclimatization responses in terms of changes in thermoregulation, probably due to behavioral factors (adequate protective clothing, short cold exposures, and high housing temperatures). With regard to performance, we observed that moderate cold exposure, which may occur in everyday life, affects cognition negatively through the mechanisms of distraction and both positively and negatively through the mechanism of arousal (increased vigilance). It seems that especially simple cognitive tasks are adversely affected by cold, while in more complex tasks performance may even improve in mild or moderate cold. Repeated, short cold exposures in the laboratory, causing cold habituation responses, do not markedly improve neuromuscular or cognitive performance. The article discusses the functional significance of cold exposure, adaptation, and the specific environmental conditions and physiological mechanisms that affect behavior and performance in high latitude environments.
在北极地区居民的日常职业和休闲活动中，存在大量的寒冷暴露情况。一项横断面人群研究表明，芬兰人报告称，他们平均有4%的总时间处于寒冷暴露中。影响寒冷暴露的因素包括：年龄、性别、职业、教育程度、健康状况和体育锻炼量。一些症状和不适与冬季寒冷暴露有关，当气温降至零下10摄氏度以下时，这些症状和不适开始更频繁地出现。北极地区城市居民在体温调节变化方面显然没有表现出冷适应反应，这可能是由于行为因素（足够的防护服、短暂的寒冷暴露和较高的室内温度）。在工作表现方面，我们观察到，日常生活中可能出现的适度寒冷暴露，通过注意力分散机制对认知产生负面影响，同时通过唤醒机制（提高警觉性）对认知产生正面和负面影响。似乎特别简单的认知任务会受到寒冷的不利影响，而在更复杂任务中，轻度或中度寒冷甚至可能提高工作表现。在实验室中反复进行短暂的寒冷暴露会引起冷适应反应，但不会显著改善神经肌肉或认知表现。本文讨论了寒冷暴露、适应的功能意义，以及影响高纬度环境中行为和表现的特定环境条件和生理机制。
