• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1191-1194
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate the change of Heart Rate Variability(HRV) that mild cold stimulus on the forehead of healthy men induces. 34 healthy male subjects participated in the experiments. On the first test series, 15 subjects were applied to the mild cold stimulus by the devise for cold stimulation. In the second test series, 10 subjects With heat Syndrome and 5 subjects With cold Syndrome were applied to the mild cold Stimulus. Aa a additional test, 4 subjects with cold syndrome were applied to the warm stimulus in the last test series. We analyzed the HRV through measuring electrocardiogram.(ECG). The result of this study is comparatively clear. In the first test series, mild cold stimulus made parasympathetic nervous system be activated. In the second test series, mild cold stimulus made parasympathetic nervous system be activated both in subjects with heat syndrome and subjects with cold syndrome, and heat syndrome shows more active parasympathetic nervous system rather than cold syndrome subjects do. In the last test series, 2 subjects with cold syndrome respond the mild cold stimulus. That means warm stimulus of cold condition subjects made parasympathetic nervous system active in 2 of 4 subjects. We found out that mild cold stimulus on forehead makes parasympathetic nervous system be activated in healthy male, and it can be interpreted that mild cold stimulus make healthy human be relaxed. Also, subjects have different fondness of thermal stimulus according to their Cold or Heat condition Preferences. Last test series shows that we need to investigate effect of the warm stimulus heat syndrome subjects.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 1983

A possibility whether the appearance of adaptation to cold climate during winter could occur or not in Taegu area was evaluated by comparing the data obtained in winter with that obtained by the same method in summer. Circulatory response was induced by the immersion of one hand in the cold water. The systemic and local responses in the blood circulation from the immersed hand and the unimmersed opposite hand were observed simultaneously. In addition Galvanic skin resistance(GSR) that is influenced by the activity of autonomic nervous system and the vascular tonicity was recorded. The experiment was performed by examining sixty healthy college students in winter and fifty in summer, whose mean age was 21.0, mean weight $60.6{\pm}0.90\;kg(male)$ and $48.3{\pm}0.98\;kg(female)$. The cold stimulus was applied by immersing the left hand into the cold water of $5^{\circ}C$ for 3 minutes, and the response was observed on immersed left hand and unimmersed right hand simultaneously. The observation was made through determining mean blood pressure, heart rate, amplitude of photoelectric capillary pulse (APCP) and GSR. The results obtained are as follows: The mean blood pressure was elevated during the cold stimulation. The increase of blood pressure in summer was more remarkable than in winter. At the recovery period the blood pressure was decreased to the control level in winter but the decrease below the control level was observed in summer. The increase of heart rate in summer was more remarkable than in winter during the cold stimulation. At the recovery period heart rate in both winter and summer was decreased below the control level. During the cold stimulation the APCP was decreased on both hands in winter. However it was more prominent on left hand indicating additional direct cold effect on immersed hand. In summer, the decrease of APCP during immersion was less remarkable than that in winter, but the regain of APCP was faster than that in winter at the recovery period. And the prompt increase of APCP over the control level has been obtained at the 3 minutes of the recovery period. The GSR was remarkably increased on immersed hand but slightly decreased on unimmersed opposite hand during the cold stimulation. Thus the finding on immersed hand indicates that the local direct effect of cold water is more prominent than the systemic effect, where as the finding on unimmersed hand indicates that the circulatory response to painful stress elicited by the cold stimulation is more prominent than cold temperature itself. In summary, it seems that the systemic circulatory response to the local cold stimulation of the one hand is arised more from the secondary elicited pain sensation and less from the low water temperature. On the contrary to the report of Kim et $al^{39)}$, the adaptation phenomena in blood pressure to the relatively mild cold climate in winter was not observed in this study. The difference of circulatory response observed in this study between winter and summer may be due to the difference of the magnitude of subjective sensation of the cold water stimulation by the seasonal changes in air temperature.