Sweating responses to central and peripheral heating in spinal man.

Studies of central and peripheral heating of a resting spinal man (T6) were performed under various ambient temperatures (20-34 degrees C). It was found that at a constant core temperature, sweating could not be initiated by sentient skin heating alone, but skin cooling alone did produce a rapid decrease in sweating response. Central heating alone induced sweating responses and the central temperature thresholds of sweating were inversely related to the ambient (sentient skin) temperatures. The local and mean sweating rates were found to be linearly related to the core temperature. The slopes of local sweating rates versus the core temperature vary increasingly with the following locations: chest, forearm, and forehead; but the slopes of mean sweating rates versus core temperature were essentially constant.