Citation

Matsuo J, Murayama T, Tochihara Y. Jpn. J. Biometeorl. 2006; 43(2): 79-89.

Affiliation

Mazda Motor Corporation; Daikin Industries; Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Japanese Society of Biometeorology)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of different vertical air temperatures on thermal comfort and mental performance. Temperatures at the upper part and the lower part of the body were controlled independently using a climatic box placed in a climatic chamber. Eight healthy students were exposed to the five conditions where temperature differences between the upper part and lower part were −8°C, −4°C, 0°C, +4°C and +8°C, respectively. There were no differences among the conditions in rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, and whole body thermal sensation. The strongest discomfort vote was observed in the +8°C condition. There were significant correlations between thermal comfort, sleepiness score and between sleepiness score and scores for each mental task. These results suggest that the so-called "cool head warm legs" condition induces thermal comfort, but leads to sleepiness and reduced mental performance.