Occurrence of mental and thermal sweating on the human axilla.

Sweat responses to mental arithmetic were recorded simultaneously on the axilla, palm, and general body surface (chest and forearm) by resistance or capacitance hygrometry at different ambient temperatures. Sweat expulsions observed on the axilla were fully synchronized with those on the general body surface, but not always with those on the palm. In some subjects the sweat responses to mental arithmetic on the general body surface were different in pattern from those on the palm. In such subjects the sweat response pattern on the axilla was similar to that on the general body surface. The sweat response to mental arithmetic occurred at a considerably lower environmental temperature on the axilla than on the general body surface. The occurrence of the sweat response on the axilla can be related to the peculiar feature of axillary thermal sweating: a lower threshold temperature and less responsiveness to thermal load compared with thermal sweating on the general body surface. This suggests that mental sweating on the axilla occurs due to the characteristic feature of thermal sweating on the axilla. Axillary eccrine sweating is not different qualitatively from sweating on the general body surface.