Electroneurophysiological responses to fabric-skin dynamic contact with different fabrics among different types of people

Abstract

Electroneurophysiology has been more and more widely used to evaluate the tactile comfort of fabrics. In our previous study, it was found that three different types of subjects exist, namely extraordinary, ordinary, and non-sensitive people, corresponding to their electroneurophysiological responses to fabric-skin contact. In the current study, 19 subjects were recruited, including one extraordinary sensitive, eight ordinary sensitive and 10 non-sensitive subjects who were tested with a smooth cotton fabric and a rough polyester fabric in a fabric-skin dynamic contact experiment. Electromyography, electroencephalography, and electrocardiography signals of the human body, paired with subjective evaluation were carried out. The results show that the rough polyester fabric, compared with the smooth cotton fabric, tended to cause higher mean amplitude and larger waveform area of the myoelectric potential, reduced energy percentage of α wave, improved pneumogastric nerve activity and heart rate variability of the ordinary sensitive subjects, indicating more discomfort in fabric-skin dynamic contact. However, for the non-sensitive subjects, no consistent pattern could be observed in all of the above indicators. Therefore, the ordinary sensitive subjects are more suitable in clothing tactile comfort evaluation using electroneurophysiological measurements. In addition, it was found that ordinary sensitive subjects are predominantly females while non-sensitive subjects are most likely males.